Digital economy, resource distortion and low-carbon inclusive development-Evidence from the perspectives of a threshold effect and knowledge spillover effect

Abstract

The low-carbon economy represents a global transformation that encompasses production methods, lifestyles, values, national interests, and the destiny of humanity. As a significant contributor to carbon emissions, China has made a momentous strategic decision on carbon peaking and neutralization, infusing momentum into the global effort to address climate change. The rapid growth of the digital economy offers a fresh approach to achieving the "double carbon" objective and advancing the development of low-carbon transformation. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China, this paper uses the least square method to investigate the impact of digital economy development on regional low-carbon inclusive development. It is found that there is a significant inverted U shape in the impact of the digital economy on low-carbon inclusive development and the mechanism is resource allocation and ecological inequality. The threshold test found that the role of the digital economy in promoting low-carbon inclusive development shows a marginal decreasing trend. The inverted U-shaped impact of the digital economy on low-carbon inclusive development in the eastern and coastal areas and areas with a low level of factor productivity is more significant. Based on the knowledge factor spillover perspective, we found that the impact of the digital economy on low-carbon inclusive development has a spatial spillover effect, and this effect is more obvious under the role of R&D personnel mobility.