Influence Mechanism of Digital Economy on Urban Green Development Efficiency: A Perspective on New Quality Productive Forces

Abstract

Improving the efficiency of green development is a crucial step towards achieving the “dual carbon” goal and promoting regional sustainable development. Currently, China has made a decision to foster new quality productive forces, aiming at upgrading traditional productive forces by digitization, which brings new opportunities for urban green transformation. Drawing upon a perspective from new quality productive forces, this paper constructs a framework of impact mechanism about “production factors–productivity–production relations” and uses 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt to investigate the impact effects, mechanisms, and disparities of the digital economy on urban green development. The research findings indicate the following: (1) The digital economy has a nonlinear influence on green development, with a critical value of 0.149. The conclusion still valid after “Utest” and robustness checks. (2) With the new strategy, digital economy indirectly influences urban green process through nonlinear mediating effects of green technology and green finance, as well as linear mediating effects of resource allocation and industrial structure. (3) There are notable effects heterogeneity across urban agglomerations and individual cities, as well as between resource-based and non-resource-based cities. (4) Furthermore, the policy intensity exerts a stage enhancing effect on the influence. With the promotion of digital policies such as Broadband China, the influence shows a phased increasing trend. The research provides valuable insights for harnessing new quality productive forces to power the digital economy and regional green transformation.