Development Of Digital Economy,Upgrading Of Industrial Structure And Carbon Emissions

The digital economy is the most important way of economic growth in China in the future,and it is crucial for high-quality economic growth in China.With the rapid development of science and technology,China has entered the era of digitalization,with new technologies,products,and formats emerging in an endless stream,making the integration of the digital economy and the real economy closer,greatly improving the efficiency of resource allocation in China,and laying a solid foundation for China to embark on a green and low-carbon road.The digital economy has become a powerful tool for achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals in China.Therefore,in the context of developing the digital economy and achieving carbon neutrality in parallel,in-depth exploration of the relationship between the digital economy and carbon emissions is of great significance for promoting sustainable development in China.This article uses provincial panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2020.Based on a summary of relevant literature,the development level of the digital economy is evaluated from four dimensions: digital infrastructure,digital industrialization,industrial digitization,and digital development environment.An evaluation system is constructed to measure the development level of the digital economy,including eight secondary indicators,including terminal facilities,network resources,technology applications,industrial scale,economic foundation,integrated applications,policy environment,and talent environment,as well as 19 tertiary indicators,Finally,the digital economy development index is calculated using the entropy method.This article also refers to relevant research by scholars and calculation formulas published in the IPCC guidelines,selects eight types of energy consumption to calculate and obtain the carbon emissions of each province,and then analyzes and verifies the relationship between the digital economy and carbon emissions,verifying the assumptions in this article.In empirical research,this article analyzes the direct and indirect impacts of the digital economy on carbon emissions,as well as the non-linear relationship between the two,based on theoretical assumptions.The indirect impact is measured by selecting industrial structure upgrading as an intermediary variable,which is measured from two perspectives: industrial structure rationalization and industrial structure upgrading.The research results show that: first,the relationship between the digital economy and carbon emissions is significantly negative,and the development of the digital economy effectively inhibits the generation of carbon emissions.Secondly,in the intermediary effect analysis,the intermediary effect of industrial structure rationalization between the digital economy and carbon emissions is not significant,while industrial structure upgrading plays a partial intermediary role between the two.The digital economy can indirectly affect carbon emissions through industrial structure upgrading.Among the total effects,direct effects account for a high proportion,and the digital economy plays a leading role in the direct transmission mechanism of carbon emissions.Thirdly,the impact of the digital economy on carbon emissions is not linear,but presents a non-linear relationship.When the development of the digital economy reaches a certain level,the impact of the digital economy on carbon emissions becomes different.Fourth,the impact of the digital economy on carbon emissions is significant in the central and western regions,but not significant in the eastern regions.This article also uses the mean value of the digital economy of other provinces in that year as a tool variable to alleviate the endogenous problem.It uses methods such as replacing the explained variable,lagging the explanatory variable by one period,and deleting samples to conduct robustness tests,and ultimately verifies that the digital economy can reduce carbon emissions.Finally,based on the research findings,this article proposes relevant policy recommendations for China’s development of the digital economy and achieving carbon emissions reduction.