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. 2022 Apr 21;19(9):5074.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19095074.

Interaction between Digital Economy and Environmental Pollution: New Evidence from a Spatial Perspective

Sa Xu  1 , Cunyi Yang  2 , Zhehao Huang  3 , Pierre Failler  4
Affiliations

Interaction between Digital Economy and Environmental Pollution: New Evidence from a Spatial Perspective

Sa Xu et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The digital economy and the green economy are two major issues for economic recovery in the post epidemic era. From spatial interaction spillover, we analyze and measure the relationships between the digital economy and environmental pollution in 287 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2018 using simultaneous spatial equations and the generalized 3-stage least square (GS3SLS) method. The results show that: (1) there is a reverse and complex spatio-temporal evolution of the digital economy and environmental pollution in Chinese cities. (2) There is a spatial interaction spillover effect between the digital economy and environmental pollution. Local digital economy and environmental pollution inhibit each other. The digital economy and environmental pollution have a significant spatial spillover. The digital economy of surrounding regions has a suppressive effect on local environmental pollution. The environmental pollution of surrounding cities has a crowding-out effect on the local digital economy. (3) Digital economy suppresses environmental pollution through the green development effect and innovative development effect; environmental pollution suppresses the digital economy through the talent crowding out effect and the policy tightening effect. The conclusion of this paper provides evidence for the coupling and coordinated development between the digital and green economy, which is of great significance for promoting the transformation of economic development modes and realizing green and high-quality development.

Keywords: GS3SLS; digital economy; environmental pollution; green economy; simultaneous spatial equation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The logical framework.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The link between the digital economy and pollution in the environment.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Temporal evolution of the digital economy.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Temporal evolution of environmental pollution.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Global spatial evolution of digital economy and environmental pollution in China.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Regional Evolution of spatial patterns of the digital economy.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Regional Evolution of spatial patterns of environmental pollution.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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