[Synergistic Effects of Pollution and Carbon Emission Reductions in a Digital Economy： A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration].

In the era of big data and artificial intelligence， the digital economy has become a key focus for driving the shift in economic dynamics in China. It also serves as an important means to achieve the goals of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality." By selecting urban panel data from the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration from 2011 to 2022 and focusing on the development of the digital economy， this study analyzes the spatiotemporal evolution of the level of synergistic effects in pollution reduction and carbon reduction. A multivariate linear regression model is used to assess the impact and mechanisms of digital economic development on the synergistic effects of pollution reduction and carbon reduction. The results showed the following： ① The digital economy of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration exhibited a coordinated development trend； meanwhile， the overall synergistic development of pollution and carbon reductions maintained a fluctuating upward trend， and the gap between cities in terms of digital economy and synergistic development levels was narrowing. ② During the sampling period， the development of the digital economy and regional synergistic governance of pollution reduction and carbon reduction had an inverted "U-shaped" relationship， and this result remained valid after a series of robustness tests. ③ The digital economy mainly functioned through promoting energy utilization efficiency， optimizing energy consumption structure， expanding the scale of environmental investment， and advancing green technology. ④ The empirical results showed significant differences due to varying levels of talent resources， urban scale， and economic development.