The Impact of Low-Carbon Pilot Cities on the Development of Digital Economy: Empirical Evidence from 284 Cities in China

Abstract

The launch of the low-carbon city pilot policy is of great significance to promoting China’s economic structural transformation, especially for the development of the digital economy. This paper took the low-carbon city pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment. By matching the panel data of 284 cities in China from 2007 to 2020, this paper studied the impact of the low-carbon pilot cities on the development of the digital economy by using the differences-in-differences(DID) method. The results show the following: (1) The low-carbon city pilot policy significantly promoted the development of the digital economy in the pilot areas, and the promotion effect was the most significant in the eastern region and the pilot areas of non-resource-based cities. (2) Through a mechanism analysis, it was found that government intervention and human capital play a mediating role between low-carbon pilot cities and digital economy development, while the mediating effect of industrial structure upgrading was not verified in this paper. (3) The mechanism of action is also heterogeneous in different regions; that is, the magnitude and direction of action vary across regions. This paper attempts to provide theoretical support for the green and sustainable development of the Chinese economy.