Unleashing Green Vitality: The Impact of the Digital Economy on Green Innovation in Resource-Based Cities

Resource-based cities are often characterized by concentrated industrial structures, energy-intensive production, and substantial pressure for technological transformation. Whether digitalization can strengthen green technological innovation in these cities remains an important empirical question. Using a balanced panel of 114 Chinese resource-based cities over the period 2011–2019, this study evaluates the implications of digital economy development for green technological innovation. The empirical strategy combines two-way fixed-effects estimation with alternative measurements, dynamic panel estimation, instrumental-variable identification, and a quasi-natural experiment based on the “Broadband China” policy. The estimates consistently indicate that digital development increases green patenting in resource-based cities. Further evidence is consistent with a potential financial-development channel whereby digitalization may relax financing constraints and improve the allocation of financial resources toward innovation-oriented activities. The estimated impact is also amplified when environmental issues receive greater attention from local governments and the public. Nonlinear estimation identifies two critical values for both digital development and marketization, with the marginal innovation return to digitalization rising after each threshold is crossed. Taken together, the results show that digitalization can facilitate the technological transformation of resource-dependent economies, but its effectiveness is contingent on complementary financial capacity, environmental governance, and market institutions.