Technological Progress and Chinese Residents’ Willingness to Pay for Cleaner Air

This study examines whether China’s rapid spread of internet and mobile information technologies has translated into greater household support for government air-quality programs. Using nationally representative data from the Chinese General Social Survey (2018), this study estimates the causal impact of digital media use on residents’ willing to pay (WTP) each month for one additional “good-air” day. Ordinary least squares shows that individuals who rely primarily on the internet or mobile push services are willing to contribute CNY 1.9–2.7 more—about 43 percent above the sample mean of CNY 4.41. To address potential endogeneity, we instrumented digital media adoption using provincial computer penetration; two-stage least squares yielded roughly CNY 10.5, confirming a causal effect. Mechanism tests showed that digital access lowers complacency about local air quality, strengthens anthropogenic attribution of pollution, and heightens the moral norm that economic sacrifice is legitimate, jointly mediating the rise in WTP. Heterogeneity analyses revealed stronger effects among high-income households and renters, while extended tests showed that (i) the impact intensifies when the promised environmental gain rises from one to three or five clean-air days, (ii) attention to international news can crowd out local WTP, and (iii) digital media raise not only the likelihood of paying but also the amount paid among existing contributors. The findings suggest that targeted digital outreach—especially messages with concrete, locally salient goals—can substantially enlarge the fiscal base for air-quality initiatives, helping China advance its ecological-civilization and dual-carbon objectives.