IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0266564.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can digital finance reduce industrial pollution? New evidence from 260 cities in China

Author

Listed:
  • Hongmei Wen
  • Jingliang Yue
  • Jian Li
  • Xuedan Xiu
  • Shen Zhong

Abstract

Industrial pollution reduction is a crucial issue in the pursuit of sustainable economic and environmental development. As a product of the deep integration of traditional finance and Internet information technology, digital finance has become an effective tool for regulating the use of funds and strengthening the effectiveness of policies in the context of the digital era, which has obvious effects on industrial pollution emissions. Using panel data of 260 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011–2019 and the digital inclusive finance index jointly compiled by Peking University and Ant Financial Services Group, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of digital finance on industrial pollution emissions through fixed effects model, mediating effects model and threshold effects model. The empirical results show that digital finance can effectively reduce industrial pollution and part of the impact is achieved through industrial structure. In the process of reducing industrial pollution by digital finance, there exists double threshold effects. When the development of digital finance breaks the threshold value, the industrial pollution emission reduction effect appears to accelerate. Finally, this paper puts forward targeted suggestions to promote industrial pollution reduction and environmental economic development.

Suggested Citation

  • Hongmei Wen & Jingliang Yue & Jian Li & Xuedan Xiu & Shen Zhong, 2022. "Can digital finance reduce industrial pollution? New evidence from 260 cities in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(4), pages 1-22, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0266564
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266564
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266564
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266564&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0266564?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 1994. "North-South Trade and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 755-787.
    2. York, Richard & Rosa, Eugene A. & Dietz, Thomas, 2003. "STIRPAT, IPAT and ImPACT: analytic tools for unpacking the driving forces of environmental impacts," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 351-365, October.
    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. Jin, Laiqun & Dai, Jiaying & Jiang, Weijie & Cao, Kairui, 2023. "Digital finance and misallocation of resources among firms: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    2. Razzaq, Asif & Yang, Xiaodong, 2023. "Digital finance and green growth in China: Appraising inclusive digital finance using web crawler technology and big data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    3. Guanghao Li & Xiaoliang Zhou & Zhe Bao, 2022. "A Win–Win Opportunity: The Industrial Pollution Reduction Effect of Digital Economy Development—A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “Broadband China” Strategy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-21, May.
    4. Razzaq, Asif & Sharif, Arshian & Ozturk, Ilhan & Skare, Marinko, 2023. "Asymmetric influence of digital finance, and renewable energy technology innovation on green growth in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 310-319.
    5. Guannan Wang & Juan Meng & Bin Mo, 2023. "Dynamic Volatility Spillover Effects and Portfolio Strategies among Crude Oil, Gold, and Chinese Electricity Companies," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-25, February.
    6. Sun, Yanan & You, Xiaotong, 2023. "Do digital inclusive finance, innovation, and entrepreneurship activities stimulate vitality of the urban economy? Empirical evidence from the Yangtze River Delta, China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(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. Lei Gao & Taowu Pei & Jingran Zhang & Yu Tian, 2022. "The “Pollution Halo” Effect of FDI: Evidence from the Chinese Sichuan–Chongqing Urban Agglomeration," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Nan, Shijing & Huo, Yuchen & You, Wanhai & Guo, Yawei, 2022. "Globalization spatial spillover effects and carbon emissions: What is the role of economic complexity?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    3. Lei Gao & Jingran Zhang & Yu Tian & Xinyu Liu & Shuxin Guan & Yuhong Wu, 2023. "Study on the Impact of Collaborative Agglomeration of Manufacturing and Producer Services on PM 2.5 Pollution: Evidence from Urban Agglomerations in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-18, February.
    4. Ha-Chi Le & Thai-Ha Le, 2023. "Effects of economic, social, and political globalization on environmental quality: international evidence," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 4269-4299, May.
    5. Zhang, Chuanguo & Zhou, Xiangxue, 2016. "Does foreign direct investment lead to lower CO2 emissions? Evidence from a regional analysis in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 943-951.
    6. Taowu Pei & Lei Gao & Chao Yang & Chang Xu & Yu Tian & Weiming Song, 2021. "The Impact of FDI on Urban PM 2.5 Pollution in China: The Mediating Effect of Industrial Structure Transformation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-24, August.
    7. Afia Fahmida Daizy & Mobasshir Anjum & Md. Raied Arman & Tanzina Nazia & Nadir Shah, 2021. "Long-run Impact of Globalization, Agriculture, Industrialization and Electricity Consumption on the Environmental Quality of Bangladesh," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(6), pages 438-453.
    8. Claudia García-García & Catalina B. García-García & Román Salmerón, 2021. "Confronting collinearity in environmental regression models: evidence from world data," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 30(3), pages 895-926, September.
    9. 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).
    10. Jose Mendez & Lewis Gale, "undated". "A Note on the Empirical Relationship Between Trade, Growth and the Environment," Working Papers 2132836, Department of Economics, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University.
    11. Fan, Fei & Dai, Shangze & Yang, Bo & Ke, Haiqian, 2023. "Urban density, directed technological change, and carbon intensity: An empirical study based on Chinese cities," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    12. Nicole Grunewald & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, 2009. "Driving Factors of Carbon Dioxide Emissions and the Impact from Kyoto Protocol," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 190, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    13. Juan Antonio Duro & Jordi Teixidó-Figueras & Emilio Padilla, 2017. "The Causal Factors of International Inequality in $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$ CO 2 Emissions Per Capita: A Regression-Based Inequality Decomposition Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(4), pages 683-700, August.
    14. Saikku, Laura & Rautiainen, Aapo & Kauppi, Pekka E., 2008. "The sustainability challenge of meeting carbon dioxide targets in Europe by 2020," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 730-742, February.
    15. Yan, Bingqian & Xia, Yan & Jiang, Xuemei, 2023. "Carbon productivity and value-added generations: Regional heterogeneity along global value chain," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 111-125.
    16. Liddle, Brantley, 2013. "Population, Affluence, and Environmental Impact Across Development: Evidence from Panel Cointegration Modeling," MPRA Paper 52088, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Muhammad Shahbaz & Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad & Mantu Kumar Mahalik & Perry Sadorsky, 2018. "How strong is the causal relationship between globalization and energy consumption in developed economies? A country-specific time-series and panel analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(13), pages 1479-1494, March.
    18. Nuno Carlos Leitão, 2021. "Testing the Role of Trade on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Portugal," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, February.
    19. Ling Xiong & Shaozhou Qi, 2018. "Financial Development And Carbon Emissions In Chinese Provinces: A Spatial Panel Data Analysis," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 63(02), pages 447-464, March.
    20. Yang, Yuting, 2022. "Electricity interconnection with intermittent renewables," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

    More about this item

    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:plo:pone00:0266564. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.