Research on the impact of digital economy on industrial green total factor productivity—analysis based on Chinese provinces

Abstract

Against the background of booming digital economy growth and the perspective of industrial green transformation, this article empirically evaluates the impact of digital economy on industrial green total factor productivity (GTFP) based on provincial-level panel data in China from 2010 to 2020. First, this article calculates the digital economy index (DEI) and industrial GTFP, analyzes the regional development characteristics of the two, and finds that the growth of digital economy and industrial GTFP is unbalanced, basically showing the east high and west low distribution. Then, empirically examines the impact of digital economy on industrial GTFP and finds that digital economy can significantly improve industrial GTFP, with obvious regional variability. Finally, the threshold model regression reveals that this promotion effect has a threshold effect, which gradually weakened as the DEI value crosses the corresponding threshold value.