The Effect of Input Digitalization on Carbon Emission Intensity: An Empirical Analysis Based on China’s Manufacturing

Abstract

Digitalization is an excellent opportunity for the manufacturing industry all over the world to improve the core competitiveness and break through the “low-end locking” dilemma. However, it is not clear whether the digitalization of the manufacturing industry has positive ecological and environmental benefits under the resource and environmental constraints. To answer this question, we use the data from the world input–output database (WIOD) to investigate the impact of manufacturing input digitalization on carbon emission intensity by an extended analysis. The results show that the input digitalization of the manufacturing industry has mixed effects on reducing carbon emission intensity. The productive input digitalization can reduce carbon emission intensity, but the distributional input digitalization may increase carbon emission intensity. Non-pollution-intensive manufacturing and high-input digital manufacturing have stronger carbon emission reduction effects than the other industry sectors. From the perspective of input sources, input digitalization from domestic sources has a significant inhibitory effect on the carbon emission intensity. In contrast, input digitalization from foreign sources may increase carbon emission intensity.