Impact of the Digital Economy on the Carbon Emissions of China’s Logistics Industry

Abstract

As a new type of economy, the digital economy has become an important driver of economic changes and the direction of future economic development, as well as an important way to reduce carbon emissions in the logistics industry. Promoting carbon emissions reduction in the logistics industry with the digital economy has great practical significance. This paper analyzes the mechanism through which the digital economy impacts carbon emissions of the logistics industry, and then, based on provincial panel data from 2005 to 2019 in China, a nonlinear regression model and a quantile regression model are used to empirically test the digital economy’s impact on the carbon emissions of the logistics industry. The results show that there is a U-shaped correlation between the digital economy and carbon emissions of China’s logistics industry, and it is in the first half of the U-shaped correlation. The development of the digital economy has both a significant inhibitory and evolutionary effect on the carbon emissions of the logistics industry. With the increase in quantiles, the marginal impact of digital economy development on carbon emission reduction in China’s logistics industry decreases.