IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i18p13588-d1237678.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital Economy, Clean Energy Consumption, and High-Quality Economic Development: The Case of China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhong Ren

    (College of Economics, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China)

  • Jie Zhang

    (College of Economics, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China)

Abstract

The digital economy has become an important force driving China’s socio-economic development. From the perspective of sustainable energy development and based on China’s provincial panel data from 2011 to 2020, this paper probes into the relationship and transmission mechanism of digital economy, clean energy consumption, and high-quality economic development and utilizes the spatial Durbin model and intermediary effect model to carry out empirical tests on the paths of their influence. The results indicate that (1) the digital economy has a significant promoting effect and a positive spatial spillover effect on high-quality economic development, and its influence has obvious spatial heterogeneity; (2) the intermediary effect model validates that clean energy consumption is a mediating variable of digital economy and high-quality economy development, and its conduction effect also has obvious spatial heterogeneity. The research conclusions provide a new perspective and empirical evidence for understanding the relationship between digital economy and high-quality economic development as well as policy implications for the realization of digital transformation and low-carbon development goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhong Ren & Jie Zhang, 2023. "Digital Economy, Clean Energy Consumption, and High-Quality Economic Development: The Case of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-24, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:18:p:13588-:d:1237678
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/18/13588/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/18/13588/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2018. "The Race between Man and Machine: Implications of Technology for Growth, Factor Shares, and Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(6), pages 1488-1542, June.
    2. Olena Ivus & Matthew Boland, 2015. "The employment and wage impact of broadband deployment in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(5), pages 1803-1830, December.
    3. Kangni Lyu & Shuwang Yang & Kun Zheng & Yao Zhang, 2023. "How Does the Digital Economy Affect Carbon Emission Efficiency? Evidence from Energy Consumption and Industrial Value Chain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-20, January.
    4. Xia Yang & Meng Cui, 2022. "The Effect of Energy Consumption on China’s Regional Economic Growth from a Spatial Spillover Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-21, August.
    5. Sanjeev Dewan & Kenneth L. Kraemer, 2000. "Information Technology and Productivity: Evidence from Country-Level Data," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(4), pages 548-562, April.
    6. Ur Rahman, Zia & Iqbal Khattak, Shoukat & Ahmad, Manzoor & Khan, Anwar, 2020. "A disaggregated-level analysis of the relationship among energy production, energy consumption and economic growth: Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    7. Zhou, Xiaoyong & Zhou, Dequn & Wang, Qunwei & Su, Bin, 2019. "How information and communication technology drives carbon emissions: A sector-level analysis for China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 380-392.
    8. Ren, Siyu & Hao, Yu & Xu, Lu & Wu, Haitao & Ba, Ning, 2021. "Digitalization and energy: How does internet development affect China's energy consumption?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    9. 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).
    10. Chris Forman & Avi Goldfarb & Shane Greenstein, 2012. "The Internet and Local Wages: A Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 556-575, February.
    11. Jorgenson, Dale W. & Motohashi, Kazuyuki, 2005. "Information technology and the Japanese economy," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 460-481, December.
    12. Yu, Yongze & Li, Ke & Duan, Shenglan & Song, Chenchen, 2023. "Economic growth and environmental pollution in China: New evidence from government work reports," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    13. J. Paul Elhorst, 2014. "Matlab Software for Spatial Panels," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 37(3), pages 389-405, July.
    14. Wang, Lianghu & Shao, Jun, 2023. "Digital economy, entrepreneurship and energy efficiency," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    15. Zhichun Yu & Yanjiao Wan, 2023. "Can the Growth of the Digital Economy Be Beneficial for Urban Decarbonization? A Study from Chinese Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-21, January.
    16. Cho, Youngsang & Lee, Jongsu & Kim, Tai-Yoo, 2007. "The impact of ICT investment and energy price on industrial electricity demand: Dynamic growth model approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 4730-4738, September.
    17. Lange, Steffen & Pohl, Johanna & Santarius, Tilman, 2020. "Digitalization and energy consumption. Does ICT reduce energy demand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(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. Li, Huidi & Liu, Jiali & Wang, Huiru, 2024. "Impact of green technology innovation on the quality of regional economic development," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PB), pages 463-476.

    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. Xu, Ru-Yu & Wang, Ke-Liang & Miao, Zhuang, 2024. "The impact of digital technology innovation on green total-factor energy efficiency in China: Does economic development matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    2. Ge, Yihan & Yuan, Rong, 2024. "Exploring decoupling relationship between ICT investments and energy consumption in China's provinces: Factors and policy implications," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    3. Yu, Hongyang & Wang, Jinchao & Xu, Jiajun, 2023. "Assessing the role of digital economy agglomeration in energy conservation and emission reduction: Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    4. Jianhong Fan & Le Yan & Huaichao Chen, 2024. "The Impact of the Digital Economy on Provincial Carbon Productivity: Empirical Evidence from China," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(3), pages 21582440241, September.
    5. Shuming Ren & Lianqing Li & Yueqi Han & Yu Hao & Haitao Wu, 2022. "The emerging driving force of inclusive green growth: Does digital economy agglomeration work?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1656-1678, May.
    6. Tianchu Feng & Andrea Appolloni & Jiayu Chen, 2024. "How does corporate digital transformation affect carbon productivity? Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(12), pages 31425-31445, December.
    7. Junhong Qu & Xiaoli Hao, 2022. "Digital Economy, Financial Development, and Energy Poverty Based on Mediating Effects and a Spatial Autocorrelation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-24, July.
    8. Shunbin Zhong & Huafu Shen & Ziheng Niu & Yang Yu & Lin Pan & Yaojun Fan & Atif Jahanger, 2022. "Moving towards Environmental Sustainability: Can Digital Economy Reduce Environmental Degradation in China?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-23, November.
    9. Rongwu Zhang & Wenqiang Fu & Yingxu Kuang, 2022. "Can Digital Economy Promote Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction in Heavily Polluting Enterprises? Empirical Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-21, August.
    10. Du, Juntao & Shen, Zhiyang & Song, Malin & Zhang, Linda, 2023. "Nexus between digital transformation and energy technology innovation: An empirical test of A-share listed enterprises," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    11. Zhang, Weike & Fan, Hongxia & Zhao, Qiwei, 2023. "Seeing green: How does digital infrastructure affect carbon emission intensity?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).
    12. Hana Wang & Yanan Wang & Gui Zeng & Zuyu Qian & Shiguang Lu, 2024. "The differential impact of the digital economy on urban energy efficiency in China: the mediating mechanism of FDI," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(12), pages 31323-31350, December.
    13. Junjun Tang & Xing Zhao, 2023. "Does the new digital infrastructure improve total factor productivity?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(4), pages 895-916, October.
    14. Dong, Kangyin & Liu, Yang & Wang, Jianda & Dong, Xiucheng, 2024. "Is the digital economy an effective tool for decreasing energy vulnerability? A global case," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    15. Kun Liu & Xuemin Liu & Zihao Wu, 2024. "Nexus between Corporate Digital Transformation and Green Technological Innovation Performance: The Mediating Role of Optimizing Resource Allocation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-21, February.
    16. Wang, Lei & Chen, Yangyang & Ramsey, Thomas Stephen & Hewings, Geoffrey J.D., 2021. "Will researching digital technology really empower green development?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    17. Fang, Zhen & Razzaq, Asif & Mohsin, Muhammad & Irfan, Muhammad, 2022. "Spatial spillovers and threshold effects of internet development and entrepreneurship on green innovation efficiency in China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    18. Lin, Boqiang & Huang, Chenchen, 2023. "How will promoting the digital economy affect electricity intensity?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    19. Fang, Guochang & Chen, Gang & Yang, Kun & Yin, Weijun & Tian, Lixin, 2024. "How does green fiscal expenditure promote green total factor energy efficiency? — Evidence from Chinese 254 cities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PA).
    20. Zhe Wang & Ziling Yu & Lili Ma & Aolei Li, 2022. "The Digital Economy and the Energy “Internal Circulation”: Evidence from China’s Interprovincial Energy Trade," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-16, November.

    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:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:18:p:13588-:d:1237678. 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 (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.