The haze reduction effect in china under the digital economy

Haze pollution is becoming increasingly serious as it endangers human health and pressurizes economic development. This study incorporates the digital economy and haze pollution management into a unified research framework, and uses the panel data of 285 cities in China from 2011 to 2020 to precisely identify the haze reduction effect of the digital economy, governance mechanisms, and the non-linear and spatial spillover characteristics of the haze reduction effect in China. The findings demonstrate that: First, the digital economy can significantly reduce haze pollution, and this conclusion still holds after considering endogeneity and other robustness tests. Second, the digital economy can inhibit haze pollution by promoting industrial upgrading and improving total factor energy efficiency, and there is a chain mechanism of “industrial green transformation → total factor energy efficiency” and “factor market distortion → total factor energy efficiency.” However, the haze reduction mechanism of digital economy is heterogeneous to cities with different levels of economic development. Independent transmission mechanism plays a complete intermediary role in cities with low level of economic development, while it plays a partial intermediary role in cities with high level of economic development. Chain transmission mechanism only has an impact on cities with high level of economic development. Third, there is an evident threshold effect on the digital economy, and its haze reduction effect has N-type non-linear characteristics. Meanwhile, Digital economy has threshold effect on the mechanism of restraining haze pollution through total factor energy efficiency, industrial green transformation and factor market distortion. With the development of total factor energy efficiency, industrial green transformation and the reduction of factor market distortion, the haze reduction effect of digital economy can produce a qualitative leap. Fourth, Haze pollution in the spatial, temporal, and spatial dimensions has spillover and warning effects, and the haze reduction effect of digital economy shows strong positive externalities. Therefore, the digital economy should be actively developed, and industrial green transformation and factor market reform should be promoted to curb haze pollution by promoting industrial upgrading, improving energy efficiency and strengthening regional joint prevention and control mechanisms.