How does artificial intelligence affect green economic growth?—Evidence from China

Abstract

As the driving force behind the new wave of technological advancement, artificial intelligence (AI) paves the way for a new era of green economic growth. This paper uses the case of China and constructs a relevant mathematical model to propose the two-way impact of AI on green total factor productivity (GTFP) and systematically analyze the impact of AI on green economic growth. The main findings of this study are that AI has a significant “U-shaped” effect on GTFP, which was estimated using a nonlinear dynamic panel regression model. The analysis of regional heterogeneity shows that improving AI in resource-rich areas can boost GTFP and break the “resource curse”. The “productivity paradox” arises, according to the industry heterogeneity analysis, because the current low level of intelligence in resource-intensive and labor-intensive industries fails to improve GTFP. This paper also breaks down GTFP into green technological progress and green efficiency improvement effects to figure out how AI affects green economic growth.