College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China.
Institute of Food and Strategic Reserves, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing, China.
PLoS One. 2024 Oct 16;19(10):e0288429. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288429. eCollection 2024.
This paper investigates the impact of the digital economy on urban environmental pollution by analyzing panel data from 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2019 and using the digital technology comprehensive pilot zone of China as a natural experiment. The results demonstrate that digital technology has a significant effect in reducing pollutant emissions and empowering urban environmental governance. The findings are proven to be robust based on various tests, including parallel trend, PSM-DID, and placebo tests. Our analysis further shows that digital technology is particularly effective in controlling pollution in old industrial areas, high digital areas, and low energy efficiency areas. We also find that the national digital technology integrated pilot zone can mitigate environmental pollution in prefecture-level cities by increasing public environmental awareness and encouraging green technology innovation. Moreover, our research indicates that digital technology-enabled urban pollution control can contribute to the formation of a new urbanization pattern in China. These findings provide valuable insights for promoting the digital economy and achieving the goal of carbon reduction in China.
本文通过分析 2011 年至 2019 年中国 283 个地级市的面板数据，并利用中国数字技术综合试验区作为自然实验，研究了数字经济对城市环境污染的影响。结果表明，数字技术在减少污染物排放和增强城市环境治理方面具有显著效果。基于平行趋势、PSM-DID 和安慰剂检验等多种检验，验证了结果的稳健性。我们的分析还表明，数字技术在控制老工业地区、高数字地区和低能源效率地区的污染方面特别有效。我们还发现，国家数字技术综合试验区可以通过提高公众环保意识和鼓励绿色技术创新来减轻地级市的环境污染。此外，我们的研究表明，数字技术赋能的城市污染控制有助于形成中国新型城镇化模式。这些发现为促进中国数字经济发展和实现碳减排目标提供了有价值的见解。
