Will Digital Economy Reduce Smog Pollution in China?—An Empirical Analysis Based on Spatial Durbin Model
Building a digital China and a beautiful China are both important ways to achieve high-quality economic development in the new era.Based on the panel data of 286 cities above prefecture level in China from 2011 to 2019,and using the the ArcGIS Software visualization analysis method,this paper explores the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of the development of digital economy,at the same time the paper examines the impact of the digital economy development on smog pollution based on spatial Durbin model.The main findings are as follows:First,digital economy in China is de-veloping to a higher level,and the areas with higher level of development of digital economy are mainly located in the coastal zones,moreover,the de-velopment level of digital economy and smog pollution in our country have obvious spatial correlation characteristics of"high-high"agglomeration and"low-low"agglomeration.Second,the development of the digital economy can not only restrain the smog pollution in the region,but also improve the environmental quality of neighboring regions,this conclusion is still valid after introducing instrumental variables,substituting interpreted variables and substituting spatial weights.Third,the heterogeneity analysis shows that the digital economy development has a more significant inhibitory effect on smog pollution in the central and western regions,however,it has a greater spillover effect on smog pollution in the eastern regions.In addition,in the areas with less smog pollution,the digital economy development has a great effect on the suppression and spillover of smog pollution.Therefore,we need to step up the development of digital infrastructure,strengthen the effectiveness of digital empowerment in reducing smog,strengthen the digital transformation of traditional industries such as high-pollution and high-emission industries,promote interregional technical cooperation and information exchange,and make full use of the negative spatial spillover effect of the digital economy development on smog pollution.All these practices are of practical significance to the realization of high-quality economic development.
digital economysmogspatial spillover effectspatial Durbin model