Digital economy, technological innovation, and carbon productivity: Empirical evidence from the Yellow River Basin

The digital economy has emerged as a significant engine for attaining high-quality and low-carbon development. Based on the panel data of 9 provinces (regions) in the Yellow River Basin of China from 2013 to 2021, this article measures the level of digital economic development, technological innovation capacity, and government governance ability in the region by using the entropy power method, and analyzes their influence on carbon emission efficiency. Meanwhile, it empirically examines the impact of the digital economy on carbon productivity through a two-way fixed effect model, a mediation mechanism model, and a threshold mechanism model. The results show that (1) The development of the digital economy can enhance carbon productivity, and this conclusion remains valid after a series of robustness tests. (2) The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the development of the digital economy in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River significantly enhanced the carbon productivity of this region, which is significantly different from the lower reaches of the Yellow River. (3) The mediating effect test shows that the digital economy can enhance carbon productivity through technological innovation. (4) The results of the threshold effect analysis demonstrate that the government's governance capacity has obvious threshold characteristics and has a positive moderating effect in the process of the digital economy promoting the improvement of carbon productivity. This paper provides a realistic reference for promoting the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.