Impact of Digital Economy Development on Urban Carbon Emissions

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of digital economy development on urban carbon emission intensity and its mechanism of action, as well as to test its spatial spillover effect and heterogeneity. Using panel data of 274 prefecture-level cities from 2008 to 2021, this paper constructs a fixed-effects model and a spatial Durbin model to assess the direct impact and spatial effect of digital economic development on urban carbon emission intensity. It is found that the development of digital economy significantly reduces the carbon emission intensity of cities, and there is a significant spatial spillover of this effect, i.e., the development of digital economy in a city not only reduces the local carbon emissions, but also has a positive emission reduction impact on neighboring cities. Further mechanism analysis shows that digital economic development reduces urban carbon emission intensity by promoting industrial structure advancedization. Heterogeneity analysis shows that digital economic development has a stronger carbon emission suppression effect on western regions and cities with lower levels of economic development. The research in this paper provides empirical evidence for understanding the role of digital economy in promoting urban green and low-carbon development, and provides a reference for formulating regional environmental policies.