School of Economics and Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, PR China.
School of Economics and Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, PR China.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Aug 15;316:115252. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115252. Epub 2022 May 17.
Owing to its network spillover effect, information infrastructure performs outstandingly in promoting economic growth and technological innovation, and has received widespread attention. However, the ecological performance of information infrastructure, especially its impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission performance, has been less studied. To investigate this issue, using panel data for 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2018, we treat the Broadband China policy as a quasi-natural experiment in information infrastructure, and conduct a difference-in-differences (DID) analysis. The results show that: (1) Information infrastructure significantly improves urban GHG emission performance. This conclusion holds even after controlling for pilot selection endogeneity, sampling bias, and other policy interference. (2) Technological innovation, industrial structure upgrading, factor allocation enhancement, and tertiary agglomeration are effective channels for information infrastructure to improve GHG emission performance. (3) The treatment effect varies with city size, digital economy level, and economic status. Specifically, information infrastructure exhibits significant emission reduction performance in cities with large size, advanced digital economy, and leading economic status, while the emission reduction effect drops in other cities. This study provides insights into the transition to a carbon-neutral manner for infrastructure in China and other developing countries.
由于其网络溢出效应，信息基础设施在促进经济增长和技术创新方面表现出色，受到了广泛关注。然而，信息基础设施的生态性能，特别是其对温室气体（GHG）排放性能的影响，研究较少。为了研究这个问题，我们利用 2003 年至 2018 年中国 281 个地级市的面板数据，将宽带中国政策视为信息基础设施的准自然实验，并进行了双重差分（DID）分析。结果表明：（1）信息基础设施显著提高了城市的 GHG 排放绩效。即使在控制了试点选择的内生性、抽样偏差和其他政策干扰后，这一结论仍然成立。（2）技术创新、产业结构升级、要素配置增强和第三产业集聚是信息基础设施提高 GHG 排放绩效的有效途径。（3）处理效果随城市规模、数字经济水平和经济地位的不同而变化。具体来说，信息基础设施在规模较大、数字经济先进、经济地位领先的城市中表现出显著的减排效果，而在其他城市中的减排效果则下降。本研究为中国和其他发展中国家向基础设施碳中和过渡提供了新的视角。
