Cross-border E-commerce and energy efficiency: Evidence from China's cross-border E-commerce pilot zones

Cross-border e-commerce exemplifies the profound integration of digital technology within the realm of international trade. While it facilitates the growth of foreign trade, it also has the potential to yield significant environmental benefits. This study utilizes China's Cross-Border E-commerce Pilot Zone (CEPZ) as a quasi-natural experiment and applies a multi-period DID model to systematically assess the impact of cross-border e-commerce on urban energy efficiency. The findings indicate that cross-border e-commerce significantly enhances urban energy efficiency, with this conclusion remaining robust following a series of tests. Mechanism analysis reveals that economies of scale effects, market competition effects, and industrial digitization effects serve as pathways through which cross-border e-commerce enhances city energy efficiency. Furthermore, the effects of cross-border e-commerce on energy efficiency improvements display notable heterogeneity. Specifically, cities with higher levels of marketization, higher levels of manufacturing-agglomeration, and those prioritized for environmental protection experience more pronounced enhancements in energy efficiency. Additionally, this paper employs the National Tax Survey Data to provide empirical evidence at the firm-level that corroborates these findings. Overall, these conclusions provide valuable empirical support for the synergistic integration of trade and energy-saving policies.