Spatial spillover effect and heterogeneity of digital economy on agricultural carbon emissions

The development of digital economy not only directly affects agricultural carbon emissions through digital technology input, but also indirectly affects inter-regional agricultural carbon emissions through spatial spillover effect. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China from 2012 to 2022 (excluding Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), this paper uses the entropy method to measure the development level of digital economy, and constructs a spatial econometric model to test the spatial spillover effect and heterogeneity of digital economy on agricultural carbon emissions. The results show that the development of digital economy has a significant inhibitory effect on agricultural carbon emissions. Digital economy has a spatial spillover effect on agricultural carbon emissions. The higher the development level of digital economy in neighboring regions, the less agricultural carbon emissions in the region. In the northeast and central regions, the development level of the digital economy has a significant positive impact on agricultural carbon emissions. In the western region, the impact is significantly negative, while in the eastern region, it is not significant. In addition, there is a spatial spillover effect in the northeast region. This paper puts forward policy suggestions from four aspects: promoting the construction of digital infrastructure, narrowing the development gap among provinces, strengthening the digital literacy of agricultural operators, and promoting financial innovation, so as to further play the role of carbon emission reduction in the digital economy.