Department of Economics, School of Business, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China.
Department of International Economics and Trade, School of Economics and Management, Shaoyang University, Shaoyang 422000, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 27;20(3):2243. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20032243.
As the core of economic development, the digital economy plays an essential role in promoting urban environmental quality. In this study, we constructed a comprehensive indicator system using two dimensions, i.e., the internet and digital finance, to measure the development situation of the urban digital economy, and we used principal component analysis to assess it. From the three perspectives of ecological environment state, ecological environment pollution degree, and ecological environment governance ability, the entropy method was used to measure the quality of the urban environment. On the basis of panel data from 275 cities (prefecture-level and above) in China from 2011 to 2019, we empirically analyzed the impact of the digital economy on urban environmental quality using the two-way fixed effect model and spatial Dubin model. The research shows that the digital economy significantly promotes urban environmental quality upgrades. This conclusion still holds when considering endogeneity. This effect is mainly achieved by promoting technological innovation, optimizing the industrial structure, and enhancing market competition. Further research demonstrated that the digital economy does not significantly impact the improvement of environmental quality in small- and medium-sized cities, but has a positive effect on environmental quality upgrading in large cities. The development of the digital economy promoted urban environmental quality upgrading in the region. However, the development of the digital economy has no significant impact on environmental quality upgrading in surrounding areas.
作为经济发展的核心，数字经济在促进城市环境质量方面发挥着重要作用。本研究构建了一个综合指标体系，从互联网和数字金融两个维度来衡量城市数字经济的发展状况，并采用主成分分析法进行评估。从生态环境状态、生态环境污染程度和生态环境治理能力三个方面，利用熵值法测度了城市环境质量。基于 2011-2019 年中国 275 个城市（地级市及以上）的面板数据，采用双向固定效应模型和空间杜宾模型实证分析了数字经济对城市环境质量的影响。研究结果表明，数字经济显著促进了城市环境质量的提升。在考虑内生性问题后，这一结论仍然成立。这种效应主要是通过促进技术创新、优化产业结构和增强市场竞争来实现的。进一步的研究表明，数字经济对中小城市环境质量的改善没有显著影响，但对大城市环境质量的提升有积极作用。数字经济的发展促进了城市环境质量的提升，但对周边地区的环境质量提升没有显著影响。
