| As a new economic form of business,digital economy is reshaping the global social and economic structure and becoming a powerful development engine for the global economy with the continuous application and dissemination of digital technologies such as the IOT,Blockchain and AI.As a new factor of production,digital technology and traditional factors of production together promote the traditional industry to step forward to intelligence.There are many countries have reached consensus to actively develop the digital economy as an important direction.At present,China’s Internet industry is developing rapidly,and digital economy has become the core growth engine of China’s economy step by step and the core driving force of industrial transformation,which continues to exert far-reaching influence on social life,production mode and industrial transformation in China.At the same time,the issue of global climate change,especially global warming has gradually become a key issue concerned by all countries,and carbon emission reduction has become an urgent problem to be solved in today’s world.The reduction of Carbon emission concerns China’s sustainable economic development and people’s well-being.It is also China’s important responsibility to the world environment and climate issues.In view of this background,based on reviewing literature on the relationship between the digital economy and carbon emission efficiency,this paper used data from 267 cities at or above the prefecture level in China from 2006 to 2020 to study the correlation between the digital economy and carbon emission efficiency.It explored potential path mechanisms,and conducted heterogeneity analysis by region.In the context of the development of the digital economy in lots of Chinese cities,this paper has studied the spatial effects of improving carbon emission efficiency.From the perspective of spatial spillover effects,this paper aims to discover the synergistic mechanism between the development of China’s urban digital economy and carbon emission efficiency.The following conclusion can be drawn:(1)The high-level development of China’s urban digital economy contributes to the improvement of urban carbon emission efficiency.For every 1% increase in the level of urban digital economy,the carbon emission efficiency of the city will increase by 0.017%.(2)The synergistic mechanism between the development of urban digital economy and the improvement of urban carbon emission efficiency is the upgrading of industrial structure and technological progress,both of which are partial mediating variables;(3)The development level of China’s urban digital economy has a significant improvement effect on the carbon emission efficiency of cities in the eastern and central regions of China,but has no significant impact on the carbon emission efficiency of cities in the western regions;(4)The high-level development of China’s urban digital economy has a significant spatial spillover effect on the improvement of urban carbon emission efficiency.The development of digital economy in each city will not only be influenced by the carbon emission efficiency of the region,but also by the level of digital economy development in neighboring cities.For every 1%increase in the development level of digital economy in local cities,the carbon emission efficiency of neighboring cities will increase by 0.068%.When the geographical distance reaches 700 km,the urban digital economy has the strongest effect on improving the carbon emission efficiency of neighboring areas.Based on the conclusions of theoretical analysis and empirical analysis,this paper puts forward the following reference suggestions for improving China’s carbon emission efficiency:(1)Actively promote the development of urban digital economy and strengthen technique innovation.(2)Actively promote the development of urban digital economy and increase the speed of the optimization of urban industrial structure.(3)Actively promote the development of urban digital economy and promote carbon emission efficiency according to local conditions.(4)Actively promote the development of urban digital economy,and cooperate and exchange to promote carbon emission efficiency. |
