How Can Digital Economy Accessibility Accelerate Urban Land Green Transformation in China? Evidence from Threshold and Intermediary Effects

The digital economy is a new economic form that has a significant impact on urban land green use efficiency (ULGUE). With the provincial panel data between 2013 and 2021, this paper empirically tests how the digital economy development level (DEDL) promotes the improvement of ULFUE in China. The key findings include the following: (1) There were significant spatial differences for the ULGUE and DEDL of China. For China’s ULGUE, China shows an ascent after an initial decline trend from 2013 to 2017, but a decline trend after 2017. China’s DEDL took on a rising tendency during the research period. In 2021, China’s DEDL increased by 143.8% compared with that in 2013. (2) The digital economy can obviously promote the ULGUE, but the promotion effect is affected by the urbanization level; with improvements in urbanization level, the impact of that may strengthen. (3) Technological innovation demonstrates a complete intermediary effect between the digital economy and ULGUE; the mediation transmission mechanism of technological innovation is evident. These results have been verified by robustness tests, proving their stability and reliability. The research results will provide new insights into the high-quality utilization of urban land resources.