Abstract
As digital economy flourishes, there have been fundamental changes in the patterns of economic development, social structure, and ecological environment, which are the key elements of inclusive green growth (IGG). However, whether digital economy can effectively contribute to IGG requires further investigation. This paper evaluates the direct and spatial spillover effect of digital economy on IGG of 280 cities in China during 2011–2019 using Spatial Durbin Model (SDM). It further explores how government environmental regulation (GER) moderates this facilitating effect. The empirical results show that digital economy significantly reinforces IGG while GER weakens the benefits of digital economy to IGG. There is a significant spatial spillover effect of digital economy on IGG in neighboring regions; specifically, IGG in peripheral cities is more significantly encouraged by digital economy than in central cities. In addition, digital development demonstrates the most significant impact on IGG in central regions of China, followed by the eastern regions, with western regions lagging behind. This paper contributes theoretically and empirically to promote digital economy selectively for IGG in different regions and provides a guideline for policymakers to achieve IGG through proper GER.
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Data availability
The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Notes
As a current policy choice for social development, the Chinese government proposed the national strategy with “great domestic circulation” as the main body in March 2021, aiming to accelerate the construction of national unified markets with high efficiency and regulation, fair competition, and full openness.
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This work was supported by National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program of Minzu University of China for graduate students (grant number SZKY2022109).
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All authors contributed extensively to this work presented in the research articles. ZX: conceptualization and writing—original draft preparation. JM: conceptualization, methodology, and writing—original draft preparation. SH: methodology and software. JZ: writing—review and editing. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
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Xie, ., Ma, J., Huang, S. et al. Digital economy and inclusive green growth: The moderating effect of government environmental regulation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 107938–107955 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29934-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29934-3