Breaking the resource curse: The perspective of improving carbon emission efficiency based on digital infrastructure construction

Abstract

The resource curse phenomenon is not only manifested in the economic field, but also exists in terms of environmental quality. With the coming of the green economy era, how to break the resource curse for the environment is crucial to the promotion of green and sustainable economic and social development. As a key force in stimFulating the vitality of the digital economy, whether digital infrastructure construction (DIC) has become a powerful weapon to enhance the carbon emission efficiency (CEE) and break the resource curse is the focus of this paper. Based on the sample data of 282 cities in China from 2011 to 2019, the Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) model is used to calculate CEE. We consider the implementation of the Broadband China pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment and explore how DIC affect CEE, relying on Difference-in-Difference model, mediating effect model and spatial Difference-in-Difference model. We find that the development of DIC can significantly improve CEE. Cities with a larger economic scale, lower resource-dependence and less market segmentation are more likely to benefit from the CEE enhancement effect of DIC. Mechanism analysis shows that DIC can improve CEE by increasing public environmental concern and urban innovation ability. Moreover, the promotion effect of DIC on CEE can break through the constraints of geographical and economic distance, with spatial spillover characteristics. Overall, our study has certain reference significance for understanding the role of DIC in propelling green and sustainable development and breaking the resource curse.