Lei Tianyi, Luo Xin, Jiang Jingjing, Zou Kai
Department of Financial Engineering, School of Finance, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China.
Department of Finance, School of Economics and Management, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 May;30(22):62032-62050. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-26424-4. Epub 2023 Mar 18.
This paper investigates the relationship between digital finance and carbon emissions and explores the ecological effects of digital finance. Based on a panel data of 256 cities in China from 2011 to 2018, this paper investigates the impact of digital finance on carbon emissions and its intrinsic mechanisms. First, digital finance significantly suppresses the intensity of regional carbon emission, and the breadth of coverage, depth of use, and degree of digital support of digital finance together curb regional carbon emissions, with the strongest suppressive effect being the breadth of coverage. In addition, the regression results remain significant after a series of robustness tests. Second, it reveals the potential mechanism of digital finance to curb urban carbon emissions. These mechanisms include the three channels: promoting industrial advancement, green technology innovation, and optimizing labor resource allocation. Third, the heterogeneity test finds that the energy saving and emission reduction effects of digital finance are significantly stronger in non-low-carbon pilot cities with low urbanization rates, confirming the emission reduction utility of digital finance development. Therefore, we should take advantage of digital finance to improve the green development of financial services and adopt diverse policy measures according to local conditions to maximize the ecological effects of digital finance on energy saving and emission reduction. In the context of the development strategy of "carbon peaking and carbon neutral," this study has some implications for management in developing a regional green development system supported by digital finance.
本文研究数字金融与碳排放之间的关系，并探讨数字金融的生态效应。基于2011年至2018年中国256个城市的面板数据，本文考察了数字金融对碳排放的影响及其内在机制。首先，数字金融显著抑制区域碳排放强度，数字金融的覆盖广度、使用深度和数字支持程度共同抑制区域碳排放，其中抑制作用最强的是覆盖广度。此外，经过一系列稳健性检验后，回归结果仍然显著。其次，揭示了数字金融抑制城市碳排放的潜在机制。这些机制包括促进产业升级、绿色技术创新和优化劳动力资源配置这三个渠道。第三，异质性检验发现，在城市化率较低的非低碳试点城市，数字金融的节能减排效应显著更强，证实了数字金融发展的减排效用。因此，应利用数字金融推动金融服务绿色发展，并因地制宜采取多样化政策措施，以最大化数字金融在节能减排方面的生态效应。在“碳达峰、碳中和”发展战略背景下，本研究对构建以数字金融为支撑的区域绿色发展体系具有一定的管理启示。
