Digital Economy and Urban Green Innovation: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Prefecture-Level Cities

Abstract

Fully utilizing the ecological advantages of digital economy is of great significance in promoting urban green innovation. This paper discusses the impact of digital economy on urban green innovation based on a two-way fixed-effects model with panel data of 282 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2021. The findings show that digital economy can significantly promote urban green innovation and pass a series of robustness tests such as substitution variables, panel quantile model, and instrumental variables. The heterogeneity test shows that eastern cities and southern cities are more capable of promoting urban green innovation by the digital economy. This paper provides research support for the theory of digital economy in green development and the practice of urban development transformation.