How does digital economy affect green total factor productivity? Evidence from China

Abstract

To date, digital economy has become an emerging driving force of economic growth in various countries. To further explore the green value of digital economy, full array polygon graphic index method and Global Malmquist productivity index are used to evaluate China's digital economy development and green total factor productivity respectively. Based on a comprehensive explanation of the influence mechanism, spatial econometric model and intermediary effect model are constructed to test the spatial spillover effect and transmission mechanism between digital economy and green total factor productivity. The results show that digital economy has a positive direct impact and spatial spillover effect on green total factor productivity with the significant U-shaped characteristics, and these effects mainly come from the promotion of green technology progress by digital economy. Industrial structure upgrading and factor market distortion respectively account for 22 % and 5.875 % of the impact of digital economy on green total factor efficiency, which means that they are the two primary channels for digital economy to influence green total factor productivity. Results of heterogeneity analysis show that digital economy is the key factor for resource-based cities to break the "resource curse", but the unbalanced development of digital economy leads to the "digital gap" between the central and peripheral cities.

Keywords: Digital economy; Green total factor productivity; Spatial spillover effect; Transmission mechanism.