A study on synergistic development of urban digitalization and greening under the diffusion of low-carbon pilot policies

Background: Foreign capital, a significant component of the contemporary export-oriented economy, helps to solve ecological and environmental issues and encourages the green transformation of urban development techniques. This study develops an assessment framework for urban green development using panel data from 80 cities in Central China between 2007 and 2022. Simultaneously, the impact of foreign capital on urban green development was tested through the mechanism of green technological innovation using the panel mediating effect model, and the impact of economic development level on the impact of foreign capital on the same was tested using the threshold effect model. The primary research findings are as follows: (1) Foreign capital has greatly enhanced urban green development in Central China; (2) Green technology innovation acts as a major mediating variable in the process by which foreign capital influences urban green development; (3) Economic development has a single threshold effect on foreign capital influencing urban green development. This article suggests that the government focus more on the prudent use of foreign capital in light of the findings above. The study's findings offer an empirical foundation for more effectively encouraging urban green development as well as some theoretical direction for the long-term growth of human society in underdeveloped nations or areas. Objective: The objective of this study is to explore the key factors affecting urban green development in Central China, including the direct impact of foreign capital, the mediating effect of green technology innovation and the threshold effect of economic development, with the aim of improving urban green development in Central China. Theoretical Framework: This study mainly refers to Sustainable Development Theory and Schumpeterian Innovation Theory. Because urban green development belongs to the category of sustainable development, and the mediating analysis in this article is consistent with Schumpeterian Innovation Theory. Method: The entropy method is used to measure the degree of urban green development. Baseline regression is used to analyze the direct impact of foreign capital on urban green development. The mediating model is used to analyze the mediating role of green technology innovation in the impact of foreign capital on urban green development. The threshold model is used to analyze the threshold effect of economic development on foreign capital in affecting urban green development. Results and Discussion: The results confirmed the hypothesis. First, foreign capital has a positive impact on urban green development. Second, green technology innovation plays a mediating role in the process of foreign capital affecting urban green development. Third, economic development plays a single threshold effect in the process of green technology innovation affecting urban green development.However, this study still has certain limitations. Because there are certain differences between official statistics and reality, and the indicators selected in this article are limited, they cannot fully reflect the actual results. Research Implications: The practical and theoretical implications of this research are discussed, providing new ideas for urban green development in Central China from the perspective of foreign capital. And the role of green technology innovation and economic development cannot be ignored. This is not only in line with the world theme of green and sustainable development, but also conducive to accelerating the internationalization process of Central China. And this research also provides theoretical support for green development in developing countries or regions. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the literature by being based on official data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China and using a series of recognized empirical methods to study Central China's urban green development and key influencing factors. The value of this article is that it not only enriches the research on urban green development in Central China. It also provides a reference for green development and international development in other developing regions in China and other developing countries or regions around the world.

In order to further promote urban green development in Central China, the research uses panel data from 80 cities in Central China from 2011 to 2022 as a sample and employs the linear regression method, mediating effect, and threshold effect to empirically test the impact mechanism of green technology innovation on urban green development in Central China. The results show that: first, green technology innovation significantly promotes urban green development, and the conclusion still holds when considering endogeneity. Second, the regional heterogeneity test found that the differences in resource endowments among provinces lead to significant differences in the impact of green technology innovation on urban green development. Third, the mediating effect found that digital inclusive finance and industrial structure upgrading both play partial mediating roles between green technology innovation and urban green development. Fourth, the threshold effect found that urban environmental infrastructure investment has a positive single threshold effect between green technology innovation and urban green development. This paper not only enriches the research on urban green development at the academic level but also provides reference value for the sustainable development of cities in other developing countries and regions. The objective of this study is to explore how to promote the green development of cities in Central China from the perspective of green technology innovation and to provide a reference for other developing countries and regions. In this topic, the main concepts and theories that underpin the research are presented. First, the concept of sustainable development lays the main tone of this study. Second, Schumpeter's innovation theory provides theoretical support for establishing the connection between green technology innovation and urban green development. The methodology adopted for this research comprises the entropy method, panel multiple linear regression model, mediation effect model, and threshold effect model. The original data used in this study are authoritative secondary data from the official statistical yearbooks of various provinces in Central China. The results obtained revealed that green technology innovation has a significant positive promoting effect on urban green development in Central China, and digital inclusive finance and upgrading of industrial structure have significant partial mediating roles in the process of green technology innovation promoting urban green development in Central China. The threshold effect found that urban environmental infrastructure investment has a significant single threshold effect in the process of green technology innovation promoting urban green development in Central China. In the discussion section, these results are contextualized in light of the theoretical framework, highlighting the implications and relationships identified. Possible discrepancies and limitations of the study are also considered in this section. The practical and theoretical implications of this research are discussed, providing insights into how the results can be applied or influence practices in the field of urban green development. First, this study provides new ideas for policymakers in urban green development in Central China. Second, this study provides a reference for urban green development in other developing countries and regions. These implications could encompass green technology, green lifestyle, green production, and green industry, etc. This study contributes to the literature by considering new ideas for green technology innovation, as well as the intermediary effect of digital inclusive finance and the threshold effect of green investment. The relevance and value of this research are evidenced by the fact that green technology innovation, digital inclusive finance, and green investment provide new ideas for policymakers and enterprises for urban green development.

In the era of green economic development, green finance serves as a crucial catalyst for green technological innovation, and both may significantly drive the upgrading of industrial structures. This study combines green finance, green technological innovation, and industrial structure into a research framework, analyzing data from 29 Chinese provinces (2003–2020) to empirically assess their impacts on China’s industrial structure using a two-way fixed-effects model. The results show the following: first, green finance and green technological innovation can significantly promote the upgrading of China’s industrial structure directly and synergistically, a finding corroborated by various robustness tests. Secondly, heterogeneity analysis reveals that there is a “path-dependency effect” in the development of green finance and technology innovation: in areas with higher population density, more developed technological markets, and lower fiscal pressure, the synergistic promotion of the upgrading of industrial structure is stronger. Thirdly, further research indicates that green finance and technology innovation impact the upgrading of industrial structure variably under command-and-control, market-incentive, and voluntary environmental-regulation tools. The most effective policy is the voluntary regulation tool, which involves higher levels of public participation. This study offers valuable insights for fostering green technology innovation, refining environmental policies, and enhancing the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure.

The strengthening of urban innovation capacity has emerged as the main force behind the promotion of the high-quality development in China because it is a significant carrier of regional innovation. This work uses the multi-time point difference approach to study the synergistic effect, mechanism, and heterogeneity among the pilot policies of national innovation city, low-carbon city and smart city based on the panel data of 282 cities from 2001 to 2016. The findings demonstrate that (1) The national innovative city pilot policies, low-carbon city pilot policies, and smart city pilot policies have a significant effect on the improvement of urban innovation and show a synergistic effect. (2) With the help of government investment in science and technology and the construction of an innovation platform, the pilot policies of smart cities and innovative cities show a superposition effect; in addition, through the upgrading of industrial structure, the green technology innovation, public participation, low-carbon urban pilot policy, and the innovative city present the supplementary effect. (3) From the perspective of heterogeneity, the superposition and supplementary effects of lower administrative level cities are better. The effect of policy synergy overlay is the largest in the eastern region, whereas the effect of policy synergy supplement is stronger in the eastern and western regions than in the central region. The robustness test supports the conclusion of this paper. This paper analyzes the collaborative innovation effect of urban pilot policies, which can provide ideas for the combination design of policy tools.

Purpose In confronting the challenge of climate change and progressing towards dual carbon goals, China is actively implementing low-carbon city pilot policy. This paper aims to focus on the potential impact of this policy on enterprise green governance, aiming to promote the reduction and balance of carbon emissions. Design/methodology/approach Based on the panel data of China's large-scale industrial enterprises from 2007 to 2013, this paper uses the Difference-in-differences (DID) method to study the impact and path mechanism of the implementation of low-carbon city pilot policy on enterprise green governance. Heterogeneity analysis is used to compare the effects of low-carbon city pilot policy in different regions, different enterprises and different industries. Findings The low-carbon pilot can indeed effectively enhance corporate green governance, a conclusion that still holds after a series of robustness tests. The low-carbon city pilot policy mainly enhances enterprise green governance through two paths: an industrial structure upgrade and enterprise energy consumption, and it improves green governance by reducing enterprise energy consumption through industrial structure upgrade. The impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on enterprise green governance shows significant differences across different regions, different enterprises and different industries. Research limitations/implications This paper examines the impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on enterprise green governance. However, due to availability of data, there are still some limitations to be further tackled. The parallel trend test in this paper shows that the pilot policy has a significant positive effect on the green governance of enterprises. However, due to serious lack of data in some years, the authors only selected the enterprise data of a shorter period as our experimental data, which leads the results to still have certain deficiencies. For the verification of the impact mechanism, the conclusions obtained in this paper are relatively limited. Although all the mechanism tests are passed, the reliability of the results still needs to be further tested through future data samples. In addition, as the pilot policy of low-carbon cities is still in progress, the policy can be tracked and analysed in the future as more data are disclosed, and further research can be carried out through dimensional expansion. Practical implications Low-carbon city pilot policy plays an important role in inducing the green governance of enterprises. Therefore, policy makers can continue to strengthen the construction of low-carbon city pilots by refining pilot experience, building typical cases, actively promoting pilot policy experience, expanding pilot scope and enhancing the implementation efficiency of pilot policy nationwide, which will contribute to the optimization and upgrading of the regional industrial structure at the urban level and will provide experience and reference for the synergistic implementation plan of pollution reduction and carbon reduction. Social implications The impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on enterprise green governance not only exists in two separate paths of urban industrial upgrading and enterprise energy consumption but also exists in a chain transmission path from macro to micro. The authors find that the effect value of each influence path is different, and there is an obvious leading influence path for the role of enterprise green governance. Therefore, in the process of implementing a low-carbon city pilot policy, policies should be designed specifically for different mechanisms. Moreover, complementing and coordinating several paths should be advocated to give full play to the green governance effect of enterprises brought by different paths and to further expand the scope of industries and enterprises where policies play a role. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, for the first time, this paper connects macro mechanisms with micro mechanisms, discovering a macro-to-micro transmission mechanism in the process of low-carbon city pilot policy affecting enterprise green governance. That is, the low-carbon city pilot policy can facilitate industrial structure upgrading, resulting in reduced enterprise energy consumption, ultimately enhancing enterprise green governance.

The in-depth participation and application of new-generation information and communication technologies, such as big data, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, etc., in the field of smart cities have promoted their abilities in urban fine governance, public services, ecological livability, scientific and technological innovation, etc. Smart cities are gradually becoming recognized as the best solution to “urban problems”. Smart city construction drives urban innovative development, accumulates kinetic energy for economic growth, strengthens social support functions, enhances the effectiveness of the ecological environment, and promotes the convergence and integration of urban green development and high-quality development. This paper constructs a difference-in-differences model based on propensity score matching. Additionally, fiscal science and technology investment is introduced as mediating variables to further explain the mechanism through which smart city pilot policy impacts urban green and high-quality development. This research uses panel data from 156 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2019 to empirically test that the construction of smart cities has a significant positive effect on urban green and high-quality development. The mediation effect model shows that an increase in the level of local government’s fiscal science and technology investment enhances the positive effect of smart city construction on urban green and high-quality development. This research concludes with policy recommendations: the government should seize the development opportunity presented by smart city pilot policy, providing necessary policy support and financial incentive for the construction of smart cities. This will optimize the local economic structure, transform the driving forces of urban development, and assist cities in achieving green and high-quality development.

As an extension of ecological concepts, urban green development has gradually become a new bridge for various countries or regions to achieve sustainable development. Based on the panel data of 17 cities in Henan Province, China from 2007 to 2022, this article uses the entropy method to measure the green development level of cities in Henan Province, and uses the Dagum Gini coefficient method to analyze the green development differences between cities. The results show that: first, urban green development in Henan Province is generally at a lower-middle level and tends to be balanced. Second, there are obvious regional gaps in urban green development in Henan Province. Third, inter-regional disparity is the main reason for the differential distribution of urban green development levels in Henan Province. In order to promote the improvement of urban green level and narrow the spatial development gap in Henan Province, this study puts forward corresponding policy suggestions from the aspects of green investment, green technology innovation, industrial structure upgrading and green life. This also provides reference for other less developed regions in China to achieve balanced urban green development.

As a high-quality and sustainable growth model, green development has different economic, ecological, and social dimensions and is strategically important for the realization of modern city construction and the sustainable development of human society. The low-carbon city pilot policy (LCCP) is an innovative initiative for promoting green urban development and building a harmonious society in China. Based on balanced panel data from 277 prefecture-level cities from 2007 to 2020, this paper measures the level of urban green development in terms of three dimensions: green economic growth, ecological welfare enhancement, and social welfare increase. This paper also adopts a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) method for investigating the impact of LCCP on green development with the panel dataset. The results of the study show that: (1) LCCP is generally beneficial to urban green development, and the results still hold after a series of robustness check analyses. (2) The results of the mechanism analysis show that the construction of low-carbon cities has improved the level of green technology innovation, thereby promoting the level of regional green development. Environmental regulation has a masking effect between low-carbon city construction and green development in this study. When environmental regulation is controlled for, the coefficient of the effect of LCCP on green development increases, reflecting that environmental regulation also plays an important role between the two. (3) According to the geographical location, whether it is a resource-based city, and the city cluster, we found that the low-carbon city pilot policy has a significant positive role in promoting green development in the central region, non-resource-based cities, and the Jing-Jin-Ji, but not in the eastern region, the western region, the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. We also found that in resource-based cities, this effect presents a significant negative relationship. The above findings enrich the literature on low-carbon city pilot policies and green development and provide Empirical evidence for relevant countries and regions to carry out low-carbon city pilots.

Broadband, as a key element of Internet infrastructure, plays an important role in breaking down barriers to the flow of production factors and promoting green economic transformation. Using the “Broadband China” strategy as a quasi-natural experiment, this study examines the impact and mechanisms of Internet infrastructure on urban green development by constructing a multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID) model based on panel data from 277 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2009 to 2019. The results show that the “Broadband China” pilot policy significantly promotes urban green development, with green technological innovation and talent aggregation playing important moderating roles. However, there is a certain lag in the impact of the “Broadband China” pilot policy on urban green development. Furthermore, our heterogeneity analysis suggests that the promotion of the “Broadband China” pilot policy for urban green development mainly exists in central cities, large-scale cities, and resource-based cities, as opposed to surrounding cities, small-scale cities, and non-resource-based cities. The above findings clarify the impact of Internet construction on urban green development and provide a theoretical and practical exploration for achieving a win-win situation of high-quality urban development and environmental protection.

In the context of high-quality economic development, the empowering effect of regional integration policies on urban green and low-carbon development has significantly strengthened, playing a crucial strategic role in achieving the coordinated development of the economy and ecology. This study uses the expansion of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration as a quasi-natural experimental scenario, analyzing the pathways and mechanisms through which regional integration policies influence urban green and low-carbon development based on panel data from Chinese cities between 2004 and 2022, using a multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID) model. The empirical results show the following: ① Regional integration policies significantly enhance the efficiency of urban green and low-carbon development, a conclusion that remains robust after a series of robustness tests, including PSM-DID estimation, placebo tests, instrumental variable methods, indicator reconstruction, and policy interference exclusion. ② Mechanism tests reveal that regional integration policies mainly drive the green and low-carbon transformation through three channels: innovation investment, industrial upgrading, and talent aggregation. ③ Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive impact of regional integration policies on the green and low-carbon development of cities is more significant in eastern regions, resource-based cities, small and medium-sized cities, and old industrial cities. Spatial effect tests show that regional integration development has a significant spatial spillover effect on urban green and low-carbon transformation. Based on these findings, it is recommended that, in the future, in global efforts should be made to continuously improve the regional collaborative governance system, strengthen multi-dimensional linkage mechanisms in urban agglomerations, and build a policy support framework that drives innovation and optimizes the allocation of factors. This study not only provides empirical support for the green efficiency enhancement mechanisms of regional integration policies but also offers decision-making references for promoting regional coordinated development and achieving green economic growth in the digital economy era.

The green, low-carbon transition is a broad and profound change. The low-carbon city pilot policy (LCCP) is one of the most important strategies in China, aimed at dealing with climate change and realizing the green, low-carbon transition. Therefore, a quantitative evaluation of the implementation effect of the pilot policy is conducive to better promoting low-carbon work in the pilot areas. Based on 283 cities in China from 2005 to 2021, this paper constructs a double-difference model to empirically test the implementation effect, long-term mechanisms, and industrial upgrading of the pilot policy. The results show that the LCCP significantly promotes high-quality economic development and employment stability. After a series of robustness and endogenic tests, the conclusions in this study are still valid. Further analysis of the findings in this paper shows that the pilot programs promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structures. The mediating effect shows that the LCCP has established three long-term mechanisms: developing alternative industries, expanding the level of openness, and promoting innovation. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the pilot policy’s implementation effect is more significant in cities located in central and western regions, as well as in non-resource-based cities. This study proposes the continuation of the promotion and implementation of the pilot policy, an increase in financial funds and policy support, the need to strengthen the labor market’s adaptability and protection mechanisms, the adaptation to local conditions to promote policy implementation, and the need to step up efforts to publicize pilot policies.

Green development represents a critical pathway to achieving high-quality growth. From a regional perspective, examining the impact of regional integration on urban green economic development holds significant importance. This study leverages a quasi-natural experiment of regional integration strategy implementation, utilizing unbalanced panel data from China’s ten major urban agglomerations and non-agglomeration cities from 2003 to 2022. Employing a multi-period difference-in-difference approach, we empirically assess the policy effects of regional integration strategies on urban green economic development. We further analyze the heterogeneity of policy effects in terms of the geographic areas, urban agglomeration scales, and development driving models of the cities under study. Lastly, we use a moderating effect model to explore the mechanisms through which regional integration strategies impact urban green economic development. The research results are helpful for promoting urban green economy development through a regional integration strategy.

Industrial structure upgrading is a huge driving force for China’s green economic development. The Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), a crucial component of China’s spatial economic pattern, is facing the dual pressure of economic development and environmental protection. Therefore, it needs to have its industrial structure upgraded immediately. This article measures the development levels of green finance using the entropy method and bases its analysis on the panel data of 11 provinces (municipalities) in the YREB from 2005 to 2019. A moderated mediating effect model is then built to thoroughly examine the influence paths of green finance and green technology innovation on industrial structure upgrading. According to the empirical findings, green finance and green technology innovation have a significant direct role in promoting the upgrading of industrial structures. They reflect significant regional disparities across the East, Midland, and West. Second, green technology innovation has an effective transmission mechanism in green finance, boosting industrial structure upgrading. Third, environmental regulations positively regulate green finance’s direct and indirect routes to support industrial structure upgrading. This study is the first to combine green finance, green technology innovation, environmental regulation, and industrial structure upgrading under one research framework, broadening the research scope of industrial transformation. These research findings provide theoretical and practical guidance for upgrading China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt’s industrial structure.

Spatial division of labor, specialization of green technology innovation process and urban coordinated green development: Evidence from China

Based on the PSR conceptual evaluation model of urban green and low-carbon development competitiveness, this paper evaluates the green and low-carbon development competitiveness of 13 cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei from 2010 to 2019 and reveals their spatial effects and obstacle factors combined with the spatial autocorrelation and obstacle model. The results show the following: (1) In terms of the overall situation, the evaluation index of urban green and low-carbon development competitiveness in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region shows a fluctuating upward trend as a whole from 2010 to 2019. Among them, the comprehensive evaluation indexes of Beijing, Zhangjiakou, and Tianjin are very competitive, while Hengshui, Handan, and Xingtai are relatively weak. (2) In terms of spatial data analysis, the global and local Moran`s I of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cities from 2010 to 2019 were positive and passed the 1% significant level test. This shows that the comprehensive evaluation index of urban green low-carbon development competitiveness of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cities has a positive spatial correlation, and the spatial agglomeration effect is significant. On the whole, it presents a spatial agglomeration pattern of “high in the north, partial jump, and low in the south”. (3) In the aspect of obstacle factor analysis, the proportion of the tertiary industry output value in GDP, energy consumption of ten thousand yuan of GDP, the urban green technology innovation level, and industrial soot emission of ten thousand yuan of GDP are the main obstacle factors restricting the improvement of urban green low-carbon development competitiveness in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cities.