Research on the coupling coordination of digital economy and urban green development in the Yangtze River Delta of China

The convergence of digitalization and greening is emerging as a focal point for scholars. Existing research has predominantly examined the linear effects of these two factors at the provincial and municipal levels, with scant attention paid to their non-linear relationship or to the heterogeneity within urban agglomerations. This study employs a panel regression with two-way fixed effects based on data from 280 Chinese cities spanning 2011 to 2019. The results indicate that in the short term, the negative externalities and “digital divide” arising from digitalization may impede urban green development. Over the medium to long run, once digitalization reaches maturity it overcomes these frictions and becomes a net driver of green progress. Specifically, a 1 % increase in the level of digital economic development will elevate the level of urban green development by 0.0159 %. The promotion of urban green development by the digital economy exhibits heterogeneous effects, with key urban agglomerations, economically developed cities in the eastern region, and high-tier cities exhibiting positive effects. The implementation of the policy of “Innovative Cities” has also significantly enhanced the urban green development of pilot cities. Finally, this study proposes policy recommendations to strengthen the digital economy development and implement green development strategies tailored to local conditions.

The coupling coordination between the digital economy and industrial green high-quality development has become an inevitable choice to promote economic high-quality development in China. This paper conducts an empirical analysis of the coupling coordination degree between the digital economy and industrial green high-quality development via the entropy evaluation method, coupling coordination model, Dagum Gini coefficient and its decomposition, and β spatial convergence model, based on the spatial data of 31 provinces in China for a time period ranging from 2008 to 2020. The major research findings of this study are as follows: (1) the coupling coordination between the digital economy and industrial green high-quality development represents a whole steady-upward trend in China, with large regional differences. (2) There is a gradual decrease in the overall spatial difference of the coupling coordination, with the largest intra-regional difference in the eastern region, and significant inter-regional differences in the east-west, east-northeast, and east-central regions. Moreover, the hypervariable density serves as the major source of the regional differences. (3) There exists β Convergence for coupling coordination degrees of the whole country and the four regions. However, the spatial effects are different in different regions due to different influencing factors. Therefore, sufficient attention should be paid to the dynamic trend, the difference, and the imbalance of the coupling coordination degree between the digital economy and industrial green high-quality development. The research is of great significance for accurately implementing policies according to different levels of local resource endowments and economic development, and narrowing the regional differences of the coupling coordination between the digital economy and industrial green high-quality development.

The coordinated promotion of urban digitalization and green development is an inevitable requirement for sustainable development in the digital age. Based on the coupling mechanism of urban digitalization and green development, in this study, we took 282 cities at the prefecture level and above in China from 2011 to 2019 as the research object, and we constructed the evaluation index system and calculated the coupling coordination degree (CD&GDD) of the two through the coupling coordination degree model. We further used the Dagum Gini coefficient, kernel density estimation, Markov chain and Moran's I to assess the spatial effects of the regional differences, dynamic evolution trends and degree of coupling coordination. The results show the following: (1) The level of urban digitalization and green development show a fluctuating upward trend, and the interaction between the two is obvious. (2) Although the CD&GDD of most cities is continuously improving, it is still at a low level. There are large differences in the levels between the regions. (3) The inter-regional differences are the main source of the large overall differences in the CD&GDD in China, and these are mainly composed of the hypervariable density and net differences between the regions. (4) The phenomenon of "club convergence" exists in the CD&GDD. (5) The coupling coordination relationship between cities has a substantial spatial effect, and the spatial effect has obvious regional heterogeneity. The results and conclusions provide a reference for developing countries to promote green and low-carbon urban development.

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.

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.

Population urbanization and economic development are highly correlated, and the degree of coordination between the two has gradually become one of the important issues for the healthy development of the region. With the advancement of high-quality integration in the Yangtze River Delta, it is particularly important to clarify the coupling and coordination process and spatial differentiation between population urbanization and economic development for the future integration and sustainable development of the Yangtze River Delta region. Given this, we establish a comprehensive evaluation index system of population urbanization and economic development based on the period of 2009–2020. Taking the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration as the research object, the entropy method and the coupling coordination model are used to carry out Spatio-temporal coupling analysis. The results show that (1) the level of population urbanization and economic development of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration is continuously rising, while economic development lags behind population urbanization development, and the economic development level needs to be further improved. The degree of coupling coordination of population urbanization and economic development has continued to increase, and the synergistic development effect of the two has been improved, (2) the comprehensive level of population urbanization and economic development of each city in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration shows an obvious inter-regional unbalanced development trend, and (3) there is an obvious polarization in the coupling coordination level between population urbanization and economic development in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration.

The digital economy city and green development of China are important engines with important backgrounds. This paper takes 21 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong Province as the research object. By constructing the index system of the digital economy and green development, this paper discusses the external spatial pattern and internal temporal evolution characteristics of the coordinated development of the digital economy and green development from the two perspectives of intercity and inner city. The results show that: 1) From the perspective of intercity, there is a large gap between the development level of the digital economy and the green development level of all cities, only Guangzhou and Shenzhen have the digital economy development level ahead of the green development level. The coupling level of the two systems presents an unbalanced pattern of “centre-edge,” and “Guangzhou-Foshan-Shenzhen-Dongguan” becomes the core pole of the coupling development of the two systems in the province. The coordinated horizontal cascade distribution of the two systems is obvious, showing a spatial pattern of decreasing step by step from the first circle to the third circle. 2) From the perspective of inner city, the digital economy level and green development level of all cities showed an upward trend from 2013 to 2019. The coupling level shows a two-stage development trend: the stable development stage from 2013 to 2016, and he accelerated development stage from 2016 to 2019, and the internal interaction of the two systems is deepening. The coordination level of all cities improved significantly in 7 years, and in 2019, 21 cities all reached the level of moderate coordination or high coordination. Based on above research conclusions, in order to promote the positive interaction between digital economy and green development, this paper proposes to optimize resource allocation based on regional differences, and adhere to innovation-driven policy proposals to activate the potential of green development.

PurposeBy discussing the spatial spillover effect and regional heterogeneity of digital economy and green agricultural development level, this paper aims to provide countermeasures and suggestions for the better development of green agriculture in the contemporary era when digital economy is universally developed and at the same time provide development suggestions suitable for green agriculture's development characteristics and initial conditions for different regions.Design/methodology/approachThis paper discusses the theoretical foundation of the digital economy and green agriculture development and utilizes panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2018. By employing the Super-Efficiency Slack-based Measure and Malmquist-Luenberger (SBM-ML) model based on unexpected output to measure the total factor productivity of green agriculture and employing the spatial panel Durbin model to empirically test the spatiotemporal effects of the digital economy on green agriculture development from both temporal and spatial dimensions. Finally, the model is tested for robustness as well as heterogeneity.FindingsThe research findings are as follows: First, from the perspective of time effect, digital economy has a continuous driving effect on the development of green agriculture and with the passage of time, this effect becomes more and more prominent; second, from the perspective of spatial effect, digital economy has a significant positive impact on the development of local green agriculture, while digital economy has a significant negative impact on the development of surrounding green agriculture. Finally, the impact of digital economy on the development of green agriculture shows significant differences in different dimensions and regions.Originality/valueAs an important driver of economic growth, the digital economy has injected new impetus into agricultural and rural development. Along with the intensifying environmental pollution problems, how to influence the green development of agriculture through the digital economy is a proposition worthy of attention nowadays. This paper analyzes the relationship between the digital economy and agricultural green development in multiple dimensions by exploring the temporal and spatial spillover effects of the digital economy on agricultural green development, as well as the heterogeneity in different dimensions and in different regions and derives policy insights accordingly in order to improve relevant policies.

Evaluation of the spatial effect of urban green development can provide spatial clues for solving urban governance problems. The existing research lacks an assessment of urban green development from the perspective of productivity. In this study, 285 cities in China from 2008 to 2020 were selected as research objects. An indicator system for urban green development was innovatively constructed from a productivity perspective. Meanwhile the spatial autocorrelation effects of its development under the adjacency relationship weight matrix (ARWM), geographical distance weight matrix (GDWM), and economic distance weight matrix (EDWM) were clarified. Spatial Durbin Models (SDM) partial differential method was used to decompose the spatial effects of the influencing factors of urban green development, and the spatial correlation effects and spatial spillover effects of urban green development were clarified. The findings reveal that: (1) From the perspective of spatial correlation, urban green development has global spatial autocorrelation, which indicates that the level of urban green development is affected by at least 13% of cities with similar economic levels, 84% by cities with close geographical distance, and 63% by adjacent cities. (2) From the perspective of spatial spillover effect, urban green development has significant spatial spillover effect under ARWM and GDWM, specifically, the level of economic development under different spatial weight matrices has a significant spillover effect on urban green development. There are spillover effects on the impact of industrial structure, innovation level, infrastructure conditions, government intervention and foreign trade openness on urban green development under the influence of the ARWM. There is a significant spillover effect of environmental regulation on urban green development under the influence of EDWM.

Green development enabled by the digital economy is an important engine for economic growth. The article empirically investigates the spatial and temporal evolution of the coupling and coordination between the digital economy and green development by constructing an index system of the digital economy and green development, and by selecting the panel data of 21 prefectural cities in Guangdong Province in the period of 2012-2022. The study finds that, in terms of external spatial distribution, there is a large gap between the level of digital economy and green development in each city, and the development is not balanced; the gap between the two major coupling levels in each city is more obvious, presenting an uneven pattern of “center-edge”. In terms of intra-city development, the level of coupling and coordination between the digital economy and green development of each city from 2012 to 2022 shows an upward trend, reaching the level of primary coordination to good coordination, but the overall level is still not high, and there is still a certain gap from realizing high-quality coordination. Accordingly, in order to promote the interconnection of digital economy and green development, the article puts forward a series of policy recommendations to promote the deep integration of industrial digitization and greening among cities, adhering to the innovation-driven, and facilitating the coordinated development based on the differentiated resources of cities.

The convergence of digitization and greening is an unavoidable path of modern economic progress. Nonetheless, the digital economy does not consistently align with the principles of green development, potentially leading to a rebound effect in urban digitalization initiatives. To investigate the correlation between the digital rebound effect and urban green development, this study utilizes panel data from Chinese prefecture-level cities spanning from 2011 to 2019. By examining the dual impact of the digital economy on green development, the paper posits a theoretical hypothesis regarding the nonlinear marginal effect of the digital economy. This research demonstrates an inverted U-shaped correlation between the digital economy and urban green development via empirical analyses employing the random forest algorithm and partial dependency plots. It supports the existence of a moderate digital resiliency effect, which eventually reaches a state of stability rather than greatly diminishing the degree of green development in urban areas. In addition, the heterogeneity analysis reveals that the positive effects of the digital economy are more popular in cities located in the eastern and central regions, as well as in the National Comprehensive Pilot Zone for Big Data. However, these effects do not vary significantly among different ranks of cities. The mechanism test found that the information effect and the capital allocation effect are the mechanisms by which the digital economy affects green development, and there is a “U-shaped” relationship between the digital economy and information asymmetry and capital mismatch. According to the study’s results, improving the digital economy’s governance structure continues to make more sense than merely increasing the number of digital inputs.

The impact of economic growth targets on the level of green development-A perspective on officials’ promotion incentives and environmental regulations

It is of great significance to analyze coupling coordination feature between urban spatial functional division (USFD) and green economic development for the realization of regional high-quality sustainable development. However, few studies have investigated the coupling between USFD and green economic development. Therefore, based on the analysis of the coupling and coordination mechanism between USFD and green development, this paper innovatively calculates the indicators of USFD and green economic development of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2009 to 2019. Moreover, we explore the spatiotemporal patterns, evolution characteristics of the coupling degree between the USFD and green economic development using the improved entropy method, coupling model, kernel density estimation and spatial autocorrelation method, and further analyzes the influence factors with the Tobit regression method. The study found that: 1) During the study period, the development level of USFD and green economy in the YREB showed a fluctuating upward trend, but the development level was still low and there was a large space for improvement. 2) During the study period, the coupling coordination degree of USFD and green economy development in the YREB shows a favorable development trend of fluctuating growth, but it is still in the stage of moderate coupling and coordination development. The coupling degree shows a trend of polarization and the phenomenon of “high-value difference and low-value convergence” over time. 3) The spatial distribution of coupling coordination degree in each region is obviously different, and the middle and lower reaches are significantly higher than the upper reaches, and there are “club convergence” phenomenon and obvious H-H and L-L spatial agglomeration characteristics. 4) Technological innovation, industrial structure and physical capital have a significant positive impact on the coupling degree of the two systems, while human capital has a restraining effect on the growth of the coupling degree. There is heterogeneity in the extent and direction of the influence of each factor on the degree of coupling between the three agglomerations. These findings have significant policy implications for the region to facilitate rational division of labor and coordinated development of the green economy.

Using data on 282 Chinese cities, we explore the relationship between the digital economy and green development, and the underlying mechanisms. We find a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between digital economy and green development. This suggests that it plays a “creative” function in fostering urban green growth in the early stages of digital economic development. However, too much digital economic expansion will put some strain on the environment and have a “destructive” effect on urban green development. Mechanism analysis reveals two important processes for realizing the dividends of green development via the digital economy: improving technological innovation and reducing resource misallocation. Finally, the impact of the digital economy on green development significantly varies by geographic location and slope levels.

Exploring the coupling coordination between China's digital economy (DE) and industrial carbon emission efficiency (ICEE) is of great significance for achieving sustainable development goals. In the study, a multidimensional indicator system was established to evaluate DE, and spatiotemporal analysis and network analysis methods were used to reveal the dynamic evolution characteristics of DE and ICEE. The coupling coordination model and convergence model were adopted to explore the development trend of coupling coordination between DE and ICEE. The results show that the ICEE and DE in various provinces of China exhibit obvious spatial heterogeneity and spillover effects. Currently, the coupling coordination degree between the development of China's DE and ICEE has reached the level of primary coordination or above. The coupling coordination degree between DE and ICEE in the eastern, central, and northeastern regions has reached an intermediate level or above, with the highest degree in the eastern region. The fluctuation of China's ICEE has consistent σ-convergence and β-convergence, and the convergence effect is higher with the introduction of the DE than without it. The condition β-convergence result indicates that underdeveloped regions can narrow the gap between their ICEE and that of developed regions by utilizing their resource endowments, industrial structure, human capital, and other conditions, improving emission reduction measures and policies. This study provides a certain reference for the green and low-carbon development of industry in China and other developing countries in the digital economy era.