Transition From Traditional Infrastructure to New Digital Infrastructure, a Better Road to Narrow Green Innovation Gap? the Perspective of Convergence

Infrastructure construction heavily affects the economic growth, energy consumption and ecological environment. As China transitions from traditional infrastructure to new digital infrastructure, the relationship between infrastructure and regional green innovation gap might be change. However, this issue has received little attention. Given this, our study aims to investigate the impact of the infrastructure transformation on green innovation convergence and the influencing channels. For this purpose, a theoretical framework is developed, and a provincial panel data set from China over the 2014–2021 period is utilized for empirical tests. The findings are as follows. First, both traditional infrastructure and new digital infrastructure significantly contribute to green innovation. A unit increase in traditional infrastructure and new digital infrastructure can result in a 0.85% and 0.77% increase in green innovation, respectively. Second, while new digital infrastructure performs better in narrowing the green innovation gap for the entire sample, with a higher absolute value of the interaction coefficient (0.1386); however, traditional infrastructure remains critical in closing the green innovation gap in the central and western regions. Third, although both promote green innovation convergence through the effects of industrial agglomeration, industrial upgrade, market integration, and urbanization, the significance of such channels varies. Traditional infrastructure mainly affects green innovation convergence through the urbanization effect, while new digital infrastructure mainly affects through the industrial agglomeration, industrial upgrade, and market integration effect. Our findings shed light on policymakers’ decisions to develop infrastructure investment strategies and assess the resulting environmental impacts in the age of digital economy.