数字技术创新对碳排放效率的影响研究

Research on the Impact of Digital Technology Innovation on Urban Carbon Emission Efficiency

摘要:

现阶段数字技术快速发展并受到广泛应用,已成为提高碳排放效率,实现经济绿色发展的重要途径,因此探究数字技术创新对碳排放效率的影响显得尤为重要。鉴于此,本文使用2008-2021年中国城市面板数据,从理论与实证两个角度研究数字技术创新对碳排放效率的影响及其机制。研究结果表明：数字技术创新与城市碳排放效率之间存在“U”型关系,即在数字技术创新水平未抵达拐点时,对城市碳排放效率起到抑制作用；越过拐点后,对城市碳排放效率起到促进作用。这一结论在内生性以及一系列稳健性检验后依然成立。同时,数字技术创新对碳排放效率的影响存在异质性。具体来看,相较于资源型城市以及政府绿色数字化治理水平较低的城市,非资源型城市以及政府绿色数字化治理水平高的城市能更好地结合数字技术创新实现城市碳排放效率的提高。机制检验表明,产业结构升级,能源结构改善是数字技术创新实现城市碳排放效率提升的重要途径。本文为数字技术创新在中国低碳发展中的应用前景提供了经验证据与政策参考。

Abstract:

At this stage, the rapid development and wide application of digital technology has become an important way to improve the efficiency of carbon emission and realize the green development of the economy, so it is particularly important to explore the impact of digital technology innovation on carbon emission efficiency. In view of this, this paper investigates the impact of digital technology innovation on carbon emission efficiency and its mechanism from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, using the panel data of Chinese cities from 2008 to 2021. The results show that there is a U-shaped relationship between digital technology innovation and urban carbon emission efficiency, i.e., when the level of digital technology innovation has not reached the inflection point, it plays an inhibiting role on urban carbon emission efficiency; after crossing the inflection point, it plays a promoting role on urban carbon emission efficiency. This conclusion still holds after endogeneity and a series of robustness tests. At the same time, there is heterogeneity in the impact of digital technology innovation on carbon emission efficiency. Specifically, non-resource cities and cities with a high level of government green digital governance are better able to combine digital technological innovation to achieve the improvement of urban carbon emission efficiency than resource cities and cities with a low level of government green digital governance. Mechanism tests show that industrial structure upgrading and energy structure improvement are important ways for digital technology innovation to achieve urban carbon emission efficiency improvement. This paper provides empirical evidence and policy references for the application of digital technology innovation in China"s low-carbon development.