The Dynamic Evolution of the Digital Economy and Its Impact on the Urban Green Innovation Development from the Perspective of Driving Force—Taking China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt Cities as an Example

Abstract

The digital economy is an essential driving force supporting high-quality green development. Based on the panel data of cities in China’s Yangtze River from 2011 to 2020, this paper builds the digital economy evaluation index system from the five driving forces of market demand, information application, innovative development, industrial foundation, and the policy system. The Kernel density function, Moran index, and spatial econometric model are used to investigate the spatial and temporal evolution of the digital economy, as well as its driving effect and spatial effect on urban green innovation development. The results show that: (1) In China’s Yangtze River economic belt, the gap and the urban spatial dependence of the urban digital economy development are increasing; (2) The digital economy directly drives urban green innovation development, and also indirectly drives it by stimulating intra-city industrial structure upgrading and inter-city knowledge spillover, both of which have significant structural and regional differences; (3) Through the spatial spillover effect, it affects the urban green innovation development in its’ own city and in the surrounding ones, varying according to urban administrative levels and urban development types. The results provide a theoretical and practical reference for future policy formation to support high-quality green innovation development and fully utilize the driving force of the digital economy.