IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v12y2023i5p936-d1129845.html

Research on Informatization Level, Technological Innovation and Urban Environmental Pollution: A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the Next-Generation Internet Demonstration City Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Bo Li

    (School of Management, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300384, China)

  • Xiangmiao Xu

    (School of Management, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300384, China)

Abstract

This study uses the data of 280 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2008 to 2019 as the research samples, and the DID (difference-in-difference) model to explore the negative impact of the Next-Generation Internet Demonstration City Policy (NGIDCP) on urban environmental pollution, and further analyzes the transmission mechanisms of informatization level and technological innovation in this influence. The results show that the NGIDCP can effectively reduce urban environmental pollution, and the conclusion still holds after various robustness tests. The informatization level and technological innovation have some mechanism effects on the impact of the NGIDCP on urban environmental pollution. The results of the regional heterogeneity test show that the negative impact of the NGIDCP on urban environmental pollution is significant in the eastern and western regions and has little effect on the central region. At the end of the paper, some recommendations on urban environmental pollution based on the conclusions drawn from the study are proposed.

Suggested Citation

  • Bo Li & Xiangmiao Xu, 2023. "Research on Informatization Level, Technological Innovation and Urban Environmental Pollution: A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the Next-Generation Internet Demonstration City Policy," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-18, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:5:p:936-:d:1129845
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/5/936/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/5/936/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bendik Bygstad & Hans-Petter Aanby, 2010. "ICT infrastructure for innovation: A case study of the enterprise service bus approach," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 257-265, July.
    2. Jacobson, Louis S & LaLonde, Robert J & Sullivan, Daniel G, 1993. "Earnings Losses of Displaced Workers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 685-709, September.
    3. Louis S. Jacobson & Robert J. LaLonde & Daniel G. Sullivan, 1993. "Long-term earnings losses of high-seniority displaced workers," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 17(Nov), pages 2-20.
    4. Chen, Jun, 2023. "Mitigating nitrogen dioxide air pollution: The roles and effect of national smart city pilots in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PA).
    5. Sadorsky, Perry, 2012. "Information communication technology and electricity consumption in emerging economies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 130-136.
    6. Baumann, Julian & Kritikos, Alexander S., 2016. "The link between R&D, innovation and productivity: Are micro firms different?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1263-1274.
    7. Eliana La Ferrara & Alberto Chong & Suzanne Duryea, 2012. "Soap Operas and Fertility: Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 1-31, October.
    8. Rahman, Mohammad Mafizur & Alam, Khosrul, 2021. "Clean energy, population density, urbanization and environmental pollution nexus: Evidence from Bangladesh," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 1063-1072.
    9. Yongtao Shen & Fan Zhang & Min Gong & JiQiang Huang, 2022. "The Urbanization–Environmental Pollution Nexus: An Analysis Based on a Spatial Perspective," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(8), pages 2355-2367, June.
    10. Patrick Schulte & Heinz Welsch & Sascha Rexhäuser, 2016. "ICT and the Demand for Energy: Evidence from OECD Countries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(1), pages 119-146, January.
    11. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Raghutla, Chandrashekar & Song, Malin & Zameer, Hashim & Jiao, Zhilun, 2020. "Public-private partnerships investment in energy as new determinant of CO2 emissions: The role of technological innovations in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    12. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," NBER Working Papers 3914, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Wu, Haitao & Hao, Yu & Ren, Siyu & Yang, Xiaodong & Xie, Guo, 2021. "Does internet development improve green total factor energy efficiency? Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    14. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra Todd, 1998. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 65(2), pages 261-294.
    15. Reisch, Lucia A. & Zhao, Min, 2017. "Behavioural economics, consumer behaviour and consumer policy: state of the art," Behavioural Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 190-206, November.
    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. Yuan Feng & Jiaxin Liu & Changfei Nie, 2026. "How does digital economy affect synergy of carbon mitigation and pollution reduction? Evidence from next-generation internet demonstration city construction in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 4665-4695, February.

    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. Li, Bo & Han, Yukai & Wang, Chensheng & Sun, Wei, 2022. "Did civilized city policy improve energy efficiency of resource-based cities? Prefecture-level evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Yi Li & Lili Ding & Yongliang Yang, 2020. "Can the Introduction of an Environmental Target Assessment Policy Improve the TFP of Textile Enterprises? A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the Huai River Basin in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-19, February.
    3. Wu, Haitao & Xue, Yan & Hao, Yu & Ren, Siyu, 2021. "How does internet development affect energy-saving and emission reduction? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    4. Tang, Chang & Xue, Yan & Wu, Haitao & Irfan, Muhammad & Hao, Yu, 2022. "How does telecommunications infrastructure affect eco-efficiency? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    5. Zou, Ganna & Zhang, Shengbo & Gan, Xingqiong & Cheng, Hua, 2025. "How government green procurement incentivises corporate green innovation? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1605-1626.
    6. von Greiff, Jenny, 2009. "Displacement and self-employment entry," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 556-565, October.
    7. Ling-Yun He & Xiao-Feng Qi, 2021. "Environmental Courts, Environment and Employment: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, June.
    8. Qingxi Wang & Yueji Xin & An hu & Yanan Du, 2025. "Stimulating energy efficiency by low-carbon transformation: Evidence from low-carbon city pilot in China," Energy & Environment, , vol. 36(7), pages 3463-3480, November.
    9. Bohacek, Radim & Myck, Michal, 2025. "Economic Consequences of Political Persecution (updated research)," IZA Discussion Papers 18282, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Bester Chimbo, 2020. "Information and Communication Technology and Electricity Consumption in Transitional Economies," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(3), pages 296-302.
    11. Wang, Yijing & Xi, Kang, 2026. "Carbon markets, industrial robots, and the labour skill premium," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 986-1004.
    12. Shiqin Su & Siying Li, 2025. "Energy efficiency suppression and spatial spillover effect: a quasi-natural experiment based on China’s environmental protection tax law," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 6397-6422, March.
    13. Zou, Tao & Li, Shasha & Dai, Yixin, 2025. "Does the pilot free trade zone promote “quality improvement and quantity increase” of the city’s export trade?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1323-1341.
    14. Li, Rui & Yang, Huiting & Zhang, Jun, 2024. "Agricultural tax reform, capital investment, and structural transformation in China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 509-522.
    15. Luo, Hanlin & Chen, Lusi & Xu, Xin, 2025. "How the disclosure of government public data stimulates corporate green transitions," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    16. Sun, Yajie & Liao, Wen-Chi, 2021. "Resource-Exhausted City Transition to continue industrial development," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    17. Wang, Ruqi & Xu, Pei & Gao, Honggui, 2024. "Rectifying local governments’ strategic environmental enforcement: Can refined air pollution monitoring enhance local air quality in China?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 978-995.
    18. Hu, Wen-Quan & Fang, Jiewei, 2025. "Green credit and firms’ emission reduction performance: Evidence from China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    19. Xue, Yan & Tang, Chang & Wu, Haitao & Liu, Jianmin & Hao, Yu, 2022. "The emerging driving force of energy consumption in China: Does digital economy development matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    20. Yang, Jie & Wei, Chu & Shen, Renjun & Ji, Tonghui, 2026. "Targeted environmental policy and public welfare: Evidence from fireworks deregulation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(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:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:5:p:936-:d:1129845. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.