A Study On The Impact Of Digital Economy Development On Green Economy Efficiency

Over the past 40 years,China has achieved rapid economic take-off through reform and opening up and by following the trend of globalization.However,China’s past crude development model relied heavily on heavy industry and large-scale infrastructure construction.Long-term "high pollution" 、 "high emissions" economic growth is to destroy the ecological environment,the accumulation of a large number of pollutants as the price.20 th CPC National Congress reports mentions the need to promote the development of a comprehensive green transformation of the economy and society,and to promote the harmonious coexistence of man and nature.As a strategic choice to seize new opportunities for the development of the technological revolution and a new stage of industrial transformation,the digital economy is conducive to improving the efficiency of resource utilization,efficient development and utilization of renewable energy,and can play an important role in effectively promoting the green transformation of China’s economy.Therefore,it is of great importance to study the impact of digital economy development on green economic efficiency for the new stage of high-quality development in China.This paper takes 283 prefecture-level cities and above across China as the research objects,spanning the period of 2012-2019,focusing on the impact of digital economy development on their green economic efficiency.Firstly,by reading the relevant literature,the main research findings and achievements of existing scholars are sorted out,the concepts of digital economy and green economic efficiency are defined,and the relevant theories involved in this paper are briefly introduced;secondly,the entropy value method,super-efficient SBM-DEA model and ML index are used to measure the level of digital economy development and green economic efficiency of each city during the 9-year period,and then they are divided into four major regions for Then,based on the measurement results,we construct the spatial econometric model for this paper’s empirical study,analyze the impact of digital economy development on green economic efficiency from three perspectives: benchmark regression,spatial spillover effect,regional and city cluster heterogeneity analysis,and then use three methods:instrumental variable method,replacement of key indicators and replacement of spatial weight matrix for endogeneity estimation and robustness testing.;Finally,this paper analyzes the mechanism of the effect of digital economy development on green economy efficiency,from three perspectives of technological innovation effect,industrial structure upgrading effect and resource mismatch mitigation effect for theoretical analysis,and then incorporates them into the mediating effect model for empirical testing.The research results show that: firstly,the development of the digital economy has a significant contribution to the efficiency of the green economy,and through the analysis of the results of the spillover effect,there is a positive spatial spillover effect of the development of the digital economy in the region on the green economic development of the neighbouring regions;secondly,from the perspective of regional heterogeneity,the digital economy has a significant contribution to the green development of cities in the eastern and western regions,but in the central and northeastern regions the study sample was not significant.From the perspective of the heterogeneity of urban clusters,The impact of spatially measured digital economy development on the green economic efficiency of urban agglomerations in different zones shows an overall decreasing trend of "coastal-riverine-yellow".Thirdly,the digital economy mainly contributes to the improvement of green economic efficiency indirectly through the effects of technological innovation,industrial structure optimization and resource mismatch mitigation.Based on the above conclusions,and taking into account China’s national conditions,the following policy recommendations are put forward:First,maintain the healthy development of the digital economy,and make it better and stronger.Secondly,to give full play to the radiation effect of the development of the digital economy and build a regional network for collaborative development.Third,implement governance strategies based on regional heterogeneity and local conditions.Fourth,increase investment in innovation and R&D,promote the deep integration of traditional industries with the digital economy,and build a digital factor market to facilitate the effective allocation of resources.