IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v92y2024ics0301420724003696.html

Government digital transformation, resource curse and green total factor energy efficiency in Chinese cities

Author

Listed:
  • Bie, Fan
  • Zhou, Luyao
  • Liu, Shuo
  • Yang, Tao

Abstract

In the age of digitalization, Government Digital Transformation (GDD) stands out as a critical gauge of a nation's modernization drive. It reflects the extent of modernization within the governance framework and acts as a central catalyst for improving governance efficiency and the overall modernity of the system. Against this backdrop, this study empirically investigates the impact of GDD on green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE) from 2011 to 2020, focusing on prefecture-level cities in China. Using a two-way fixed-effects model, we analyze how GDD influences GTFEE. Additionally, we explore the mediating effect and threshold models to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the resource curse (RC). The findings of the study are as follows: first, GDD has a promoting effect on GTFEE; second, the promoting effect of GDD on GTFEE is more obvious in southern cities and fourth-tier cities; third, the RC plays a mediating effect in the relationship between GDD and GTFEE, specifically, GDD promotes GTFEE by suppressing the RC effect and then promotes GTFEE; fourth, the present study also identifies a RC threshold effect; when RC < 0.5127, the energy efficiency promotion effect of GDD is relatively limited, while when RC ≥ 0.5127, the promotion effect of GDD on GTFEE is significantly enhanced. These findings are of great value for understanding and optimizing the strategic significance of GDD in enhancing GTFEE. They provide a scientific basis and directional guidance for formulating and implementing related policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Bie, Fan & Zhou, Luyao & Liu, Shuo & Yang, Tao, 2024. "Government digital transformation, resource curse and green total factor energy efficiency in Chinese cities," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:92:y:2024:i:c:s0301420724003696
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2024.105002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420724003696
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2024.105002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Silvana Secinaro & Valerio Brescia & Daniel Iannaci & Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan, 2022. "Does Citizen Involvement Feed on Digital Platforms?," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(9), pages 708-725, July.
    2. Xu, Yong & Li, Shanshan & Zhou, Xiaoxiao & Shahzad, Umer & Zhao, Xin, 2022. "How environmental regulations affect the development of green finance: Recent evidence from polluting firms in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 917-926.
    3. Zhao, Xin & Mahendru, Mandeep & Ma, Xiaowei & Rao, Amar & Shang, Yuping, 2022. "Impacts of environmental regulations on green economic growth in China: New guidelines regarding renewable energy and energy efficiency," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 728-742.
    4. Du, Juntao & Shen, Zhiyang & Song, Malin & Vardanyan, Michael, 2023. "The role of green financing in facilitating renewable energy transition in China: Perspectives from energy governance, environmental regulation, and market reforms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    5. Gao, Da & Li, Ge & Yu, Jiyu, 2022. "Does digitization improve green total factor energy efficiency? Evidence from Chinese 213 cities," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    6. Wang, Shuhong & Wang, Xiaoqing & Lu, Binbin, 2022. "Is resource abundance a curse for green economic growth? Evidence from developing countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    7. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin & Zhao, Jun, 2022. "The impact of digital economy on energy transition across the globe: The mediating role of government governance," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    8. Wadim Strielkowski & Olga Kovaleva & Tatiana Efimtseva, 2022. "Impacts of Digital Technologies for the Provision of Energy Market Services on the Safety of Residents and Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, March.
    9. Simon Elias Bibri & Zaheer Allam, 2022. "The Metaverse as a Virtual Form of Data-Driven Smart Urbanism: On Post-Pandemic Governance through the Prism of the Logic of Surveillance Capitalism," Post-Print hal-03997513, HAL.
    10. Tao Lin & Lijun Wang & Jingbo Wu, 2022. "Environmental Regulations, Green Technology Innovation, and High-Quality Economic Development in China: Application of Mediation and Threshold Effects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-20, June.
    11. Silke Niehoff, 2022. "Aligning digitalisation and sustainable development? Evidence from the analysis of worldviews in sustainability reports," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2546-2567, July.
    12. Chien-Chiang Lee & Zhi-Wen He & Huwei Wen, 2024. "The impact of digitalization on green economic efficiency: Empirical evidence from city-level panel data in China," Energy & Environment, , vol. 35(1), pages 23-46, February.
    13. Eva Barteková & Peter Börkey, 2022. "Digitalisation for the transition to a resource efficient and circular economy," OECD Environment Working Papers 192, OECD Publishing.
    14. Yurii Safonov & Vira Usyk & Ievgen Bazhenkov, 2022. "Digital Transformations Of Education Policy," Baltic Journal of Economic Studies, Publishing house "Baltija Publishing", vol. 8(2).
    15. Su, Yi & Fan, Qi-ming, 2022. "Renewable energy technology innovation, industrial structure upgrading and green development from the perspective of China's provinces," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    16. Beatriz Cuadrado-Ballesteros & Marco Bisogno, 2022. "Budget transparency and financial sustainability," Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(6), pages 210-234, June.
    17. Madurai Elavarasan, Rajvikram & Pugazhendhi, Rishi & Irfan, Muhammad & Mihet-Popa, Lucian & Khan, Irfan Ahmad & Campana, Pietro Elia, 2022. "State-of-the-art sustainable approaches for deeper decarbonization in Europe – An endowment to climate neutral vision," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    18. Xianhong Xiang & Guoge Yang & Hui Sun, 2022. "The Impact of the Digital Economy on Low-Carbon, Inclusive Growth: Promoting or Restraining," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-27, June.
    19. Sascha Buetzer, 2022. "Advancing the Monetary Policy Toolkit through Outright Transfers," IMF Working Papers 2022/087, International Monetary Fund.
    20. Chengying Yang & Tajul Ariffin Masron, 2022. "Impact of Digital Finance on Energy Efficiency in the Context of Green Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    21. Tyna Eloundou & Sam Manning & Pamela Mishkin & Daniel Rock, 2023. "GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models," Papers 2303.10130, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
    22. Conceição Castro & Cristina Lopes, 2022. "Digital Government and Sustainable Development," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(2), pages 880-903, June.
    23. Fabra, Natalia, 2023. "Reforming European electricity markets: Lessons from the energy crisis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    24. Salil Bharany & Sandeep Sharma & Osamah Ibrahim Khalaf & Ghaida Muttashar Abdulsahib & Abeer S. Al Humaimeedy & Theyazn H. H. Aldhyani & Mashael Maashi & Hasan Alkahtani, 2022. "A Systematic Survey on Energy-Efficient Techniques in Sustainable Cloud Computing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-89, May.
    25. Radoslaw Miskiewicz, 2022. "Clean and Affordable Energy within Sustainable Development Goals: The Role of Governance Digitalization," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-17, December.
    26. Wu, Junwei & Yang, Cunyi & Chen, Li, 2024. "Examining the non-linear effects of monetary policy on carbon emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    27. Lin, Boqiang & Huang, Chenchen, 2023. "Nonlinear relationship between digitization and energy efficiency: Evidence from transnational panel data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    28. Cao, Qian & Feng, Zhiying & Yang, Runze & Yang, Cunyi, 2024. "Conflict and natural resource condition: An examination based on national power heterogeneity," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    29. Huang, Chaoqun & Liu, Weibai & Iqbal, Wasim & Shah, Syed Ale Raza, 2024. "Does digital governance matter for environmental sustainability? The key challenges and opportunities under the prism of natural resource management," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tang, Jiaomei & Li, Wanting & Hu, Jiahan & Ren, Yayun, 2025. "Can government digital transformation improve corporate energy efficiency in resource-based cities?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    2. Zhang, Zhiyuan & Zhao, Jialin & Sahut, Jean-Michel & Song, Yang & Guesmi, Khaled, 2026. "The impact of artificial intelligence on urban energy consumption," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    3. Xinle Zheng & Linrong Yu & Qi Liu & Rui Xu & Junyan Tang & Xinyuan Yu & Kun Lv, 2025. "Digital Government Construction, Bidirectional Interaction Between Technological and Spiritual Civilization, and Achieving Dual Control of Sustainable Energy: Causal Inference Using Spatial DID and Dual Machine Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-43, May.
    4. Feng, Yanchao & Liu, Gaoxiang & Meng, Xiangxu & Jiang, Kai & Huang, Rongbing & Zhang, Ci & Shi, Jiaxin & Pan, Yuxi, 2024. "How does digital government affect carbon intensity at the global level? New perspective of resource allocation optimization," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    5. Zi-Han Liu & Zheng-Zheng Li & Oana Ramona Lobonț & Kai-Hua Wang, 2025. "How Does Fintech Affect Green Total Factor Energy Efficiency? Evidence from 240 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-25, September.
    6. Zhong, Kaijun & Lei, Yalin & Zhao, Jun & Jiang, Yong, 2025. "How to enhance China's total-factor energy efficiency via digital-real economy integration: New evidence from dynamic QCA analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ozturk, Ilhan & Ullah, Sana & Sohail, Sidra & Sohail, Muhammad Tayyab, 2025. "How do digital government, circular economy, and environmental regulatory stringency affect renewable energy production?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    2. Chien-Chiang Lee & Zihao Yuan & Chang-Song Wang & Zeshuang Xiao, 2026. "How to drive green economic development in China: empirical evidence from environmental regulation," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 1-33, April.
    3. Doan, Nguyen & Nguyen, Canh Phuc, 2025. "Can e-government facilitate the deployment of renewable energy?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    4. Ahmad, Ejaz & Khan, Dilawar & Anser, Muhammad Khalid & Nassani, Abdelmohsen A. & Hassan, Syeda Anam & Zaman, Khalid, 2024. "The influence of grid connectivity, electricity pricing, policy-driven power incentives, and carbon emissions on renewable energy adoption: Exploring key factors," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    5. Da Gao & Qingshuo Wang & Qingjiang Han, 2025. "How Does Critical Peak Pricing Boost Urban Green Total Factor Energy Efficiency? Evidence from a Double Machine Learning Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-21, September.
    6. Liu, Changyu & Wang, Jing & Ji, Qiang & Zhang, Dayong, 2024. "To be green or not to be: How governmental regulation shapes financial institutions' greenwashing behaviors in green finance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    7. Fu, Yu-Hao & Yang, Hao-Chang, 2025. "Does E-government boost environmental performance?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 422-436.
    8. Tang, Jiaomei & Li, Wanting & Hu, Jiahan & Ren, Yayun, 2025. "Can government digital transformation improve corporate energy efficiency in resource-based cities?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    9. Xie Yao & Farah Durani & Qasim Raza Syed & Hooi Hooi Lean & Mosab I. Tabash, 2025. "Does tourism promote green growth? A panel data analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 2411-2422, January.
    10. Ran, Qiying & Yang, Xiaodong & Yan, Hongchuan & Xu, Yang & Cao, Jianhong, 2023. "Natural resource consumption and industrial green transformation: Does the digital economy matter?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    11. Zhou, Yuanxiang & Liu, Huayan & Chen, Chan & Ma, Yingqi, 2025. "The impact of digital inclusive finance on green economic efficiency: Pathways to inclusive sustainability," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    12. Satar Bakhsh & Md Shabbir Alam & Wei Zhang, 2024. "Green finance and Sustainable Development Goals: is there a role for geopolitical uncertainty?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1-30, August.
    13. Aleksy Kwilinski & Oleksii Lyulyov & Tetyana Pimonenko, 2023. "Inclusive Economic Growth: Relationship between Energy and Governance Efficiency," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-16, March.
    14. Ding, Guangyuan & Xiong, Yunbiao & Wang, Yashu, 2024. "Moderating effect of digital governance and eco-policy stringency in realizing natural resources-growth nexus: Role of financial development and FDI in G20 countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    15. Hwang, Young Kyu & Sánchez Díez, Ángeles, 2024. "Renewable energy transition and green growth nexus in Latin America," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    16. Hao, Xiaoli & Li, Ke & Ren, Siyu & Sun, Qingyu & Hu, Weitao & Xue, Yan, 2024. "How green investment significantly relieves resource curse? A new perspective from fiscal decentralization," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    17. Jiajun Ning & Xiyu Li & Yuan Gao, 2025. "Dynamic analysis and influence mechanism of digital technology diffusion in the energy industry based on the evolutionary game model of complex networks," Energy & Environment, , vol. 36(7), pages 3355-3375, November.
    18. Gao, Lan & Wang, Jing, 2025. "Can artificial intelligence reduce energy vulnerability? Evidence from an international perspective," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    19. Zhang Zheng & Liu Zhe & Wang Huihui, 2026. "The Relationship Between Institutional Quality, Renewable Energy Investment, Financial Development, and Ecological Hazards: Evidence from ASEAN Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 17(1), pages 2153-2181, February.
    20. Zheng, Huanyu & Li, Dian & Cai, Jinyang, 2025. "Driving green innovation: The impact of digital finance on China's transition to clean energy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:92:y:2024:i:c:s0301420724003696. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.