IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bba/j00008/v2y2024i4p32-56d393.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Digital Infrastructure on China's Green Total Factor Productivity: A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “Broadband China” Pilot Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Xudong Hu

    (School of Economics and Management, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, China)

  • Sen Wang

    (School of Economics and Management, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, China)

  • Jinpei Cao

    (School of Economics and Management, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, China)

  • Pu Hao

    (School of Economics and Management, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, China)

Abstract

The digital economy has emerged as a crucial driving force for promoting China’s green transformation in the new development phase. The “Broadband China” initiative, a key policy aimed at fostering the digital economy, plays a significant role in enhancing green total factor productivity (GTFP). This paper, based on the "Broadband China" policy and panel data from 283 prefecture-level cities from 2009 to 2022, constructs a theoretical model and employs a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) method to systematically analyze the impact of digital infrastructure development on urban green total factor productivity (GTFP) and its underlying mechanisms. The findings reveal that the “Broadband China” policy has significantly improved GTFP in pilot cities, with stronger effects observed in economically developed regions and large- to medium-sized cities. Mechanism analysis indicates that technological innovation, industrial structure optimization, and energy conservation and emission reduction are the main pathways through which digital infrastructure promotes the improvement of green total factor productivity (GTFP). The regional heterogeneity analysis reveals that policy effects are more significant in eastern regions and large or medium-sized cities, whereas the effects are relatively weaker in central and western regions and smaller cities. Robustness checks further validate the reliability of the research conclusions. Additionally, this study reveals the critical role of digital infrastructure development in enhancing green total factor productivity and promoting high-quality economic development from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. It provides valuable insights for optimizing digital infrastructure investment strategies and formulating regional development policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Xudong Hu & Sen Wang & Jinpei Cao & Pu Hao, 2024. "The Impact of Digital Infrastructure on China's Green Total Factor Productivity: A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “Broadband China” Pilot Policy," Journal of Information Economics, Anser Press, vol. 2(4), pages 32-56, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bba:j00008:v:2:y:2024:i:4:p:32-56:d:393
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.anserpress.org/journal/jie/2/4/39/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.anserpress.org/journal/jie/2/4/39
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Feng, Chao & Huang, Jian-Bai & Wang, Miao, 2018. "Analysis of green total-factor productivity in China's regional metal industry: A meta-frontier approach," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 219-229.
    2. Xiaoli Hao & Xinhui Wang & Haitao Wu & Yu Hao, 2023. "Path to sustainable development: Does digital economy matter in manufacturing green total factor productivity?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 360-378, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lu, Huaixin & Liao, Xinlin & Wu, Youqun, 2024. "From resource curse to green renaissance: Analyzing the dynamics of natural resource abundance on China's green total factor productivity during business cycles," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    2. Jianmin You & Wei Zhang, 2024. "Is the Spatiotemporal Evolution of Manufacturing Carbon Emissions in China Toward Convergence?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-20, November.
    3. Hua Zhang & Qiwang Zhang, 2023. "How Does Digital Transformation Facilitate Enterprise Total Factor Productivity? The Multiple Mediators of Supplier Concentration and Customer Concentration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-18, January.
    4. Aiqin Zhang & Wenjie Zhang & Xiaoqiang Guo, 2024. "The Digital Economy, Integration of Productive Services and Manufacturing, and High-Quality Development of the Manufacturing Sector: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-22, November.
    5. Xiangxiang Sun & Lawrence Loh, 2019. "Sustainability Governance in China: An Analysis of Regional Ecological Efficiency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-16, April.
    6. Hongfeng Zhang & Lu Huang & Yan Zhu & Hongyun Si & Xu He, 2021. "Does Low-Carbon City Construction Improve Total Factor Productivity? Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-21, November.
    7. Tian, Jinfang & Sun, Siyang & Cao, Wei & Bu, Di & Xue, Rui, 2024. "Make every dollar count: The impact of green credit regulation on corporate green investment efficiency," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    8. Feng, Chao & Huang, Jian-Bai & Wang, Miao, 2019. "The sustainability of China’s metal industries: features, challenges and future focuses," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 215-224.
    9. Chen, Yu & Lin, Boqiang, 2021. "Understanding the green total factor energy efficiency gap between regional manufacturing—insight from infrastructure development," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    10. Lee, Chi-Chuan & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2022. "How does green finance affect green total factor productivity? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    11. Guoteng Xu & Shuai Peng & Chengjiang Li & Xia Chen, 2023. "Synergistic Evolution of China’s Green Economy and Digital Economy Based on LSTM-GM and Grey Absolute Correlation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-29, September.
    12. Zhou, Anhua & Li, Jun, 2021. "Investigate the impact of market reforms on the improvement of manufacturing energy efficiency under China’s provincial-level data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    13. Nihal Ahmed & Zeeshan Hamid & Farhan Mahboob & Khalil Ur Rehman & Muhammad Sibt e Ali & Piotr Senkus & Aneta Wysokińska-Senkus & Paweł Siemiński & Adam Skrzypek, 2022. "Causal Linkage among Agricultural Insurance, Air Pollution, and Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity in United States: Pairwise Granger Causality Approach," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-17, August.
    14. Umair Kashif & Junguo Shi & Sihan Li & Qinqin Wu & Qiuya Song & Shanshan Dou & Mengjie Wei & Snovia Naseem, 2024. "Navigating the digital divide: unraveling the impact of ICT usage and supply on SO2 emissions in China’s Yangtze River Delta," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    15. Honma, Satoshi & Ushifusa, Yoshiaki & Okamura, Soyoka & Vandercamme, Lilu, 2023. "Measuring carbon emissions performance of Japan's metal industry: Energy inputs, agglomeration, and the potential for green recovery reduction," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    16. Erkul, Abdullah & Türköz, Kumru, 2024. "Green growth governance and total factor energy efficiency: Economic growth constraint and policy implementation in OECD countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    17. Yan Xiao & Yan Zhang & Jiekuan Zhang, 2023. "The Impact of Carbon Emission Trading on Industrial Green Total Factor Productivity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, April.
    18. Feng, Chao & Zhong, Siqi & Wang, Miao, 2024. "How can green finance promote the transformation of China's economic growth momentum? A perspective from internal structures of green total-factor productivity," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PA).
    19. Gao, Kang & Yuan, Yijun, 2022. "Spatiotemporal pattern assessment of China’s industrial green productivity and its spatial drivers: Evidence from city-level data over 2000–2017," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    20. Youshuai Sun & Demi Zhu & Zhenyu Zhang & Na Yan, 2022. "Does Fiscal Stress Improve the Environmental Efficiency? Perspective Based on the Urban Horizontal Fiscal Imbalance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-23, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bba:j00008:v:2:y:2024:i:4:p:32-56:d:393. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ramona Wang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.anserpress.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.