Digital-Real Economy Integration and Urban Green Development: Impact and Mechanism

Cui Linhao; Feng Feng

doi:doi:10.16538/j.cnki.jsufe.2024.04.004

Summary

Against the backdrop of increasingly prominent contradictions between resources, environment, and economic development, the extensive growth mode is difficult to sustain. How to achieve green transformation of the development mode is an urgent problem to be solved in the current high-quality economic development. The deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy provides new ways and means for achieving green development. Adopting the panel data from 270 cities in China from 2011 to 2019, on the basis of measuring the degree of integration of the digital economy and the real economy and constructing an index system for urban green development level, this paper empirically tests the relationship between the two and deeply explores the mechanism. The results show that the integration promotes the expansion of urban economic and social output, the optimization of resource and environment input, and the improvement of ecological environment governance by promoting industrial structure upgrading and technological progress, thereby promoting urban green development. Further analysis reveals that industrial agglomeration and regional integration play a positive moderating role in promoting urban green development through the integration. In cities with a higher level of industrial agglomeration and regional integration, the promotion effect of the integration on urban green development is more significant. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the integration has a more significant impact on green development in the eastern and northeastern regions with a higher level of urbanization. In view of the above, it is proposed to strengthen the construction of urban digital infrastructure, promote the transformation and upgrading of urban industrial structure towards high-value-added and low-carbon environmental protection, increase support for green technology innovation, deepen regional integration cooperation, promote resource sharing, and formulate differentiated green industry development policies based on comparative advantages.