Research on the Impact of the Digital Economy on Carbon Pollution Based on the National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone in China

The digital economy (DE) is increasingly recognized as a principal driver of high-quality economic development. With the dual carbon goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, it is essential to urgently discuss whether the DE can also provide an aid to restrain carbon pollution. For this reason, the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the DE on urban carbon pollution and its underlying mechanism, utilizing balance panel data for Chinese cities from 2012 to 2021. Additionally, this study adopts the quasi-natural experiment in the National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone to empirically analyze this relationship using the Difference-in-Differences (DID) and mediating effect models. The findings indicate that the DE can significantly decrease carbon pollution, exhibiting a clear carbon pollution reduction effect. These conclusions remain valid even after implementing various robustness tests. This examination of the action mechanism reveals that it is effective for the DE to mitigate urban carbon pollution by enhancing energy efficiency and attracting foreign investment. Further analysis of heterogeneity reveals that it is more effective for the DE to reduce carbon pollution in the non-resource-based cities, large cities, eastern regions, and cities with high urbanization levels as compared to the resource-based cities, small or mega cities, central and western regions, and cities with a low level of urbanization. These findings not only offer robust objective evidence for the positive influence of the DE on carbon pollution reduction, but also present valuable policy implications for minimizing carbon pollution and enhancing environmental quality.