互联网发展对城市生态效率的影响——基于中国285个地级市的实证分析

The Impact of Internet Development on Urban Eco-efficiency:Based on the Empirical Analysis of 285 Prefecture-Level Cities in China

借助互联网技术推动生态环境改善,提升区域生态效率,是新时期经济高质量发展的内在要求。本文在理论层面提出互联网发展对生态效率的直接影响与间接影响机制,并以2005—2019年中国285个地级以上城市的数据作为样本进行了实证检验。结果表明,无论是否加入控制变量,互联网发展都能推动城市生态效率的提升,这一结果在剔除样本城市、更换核心解释变量及使用准自然实验下均具有较强稳健性。异质性分析显示,互联网发展对城市生态效率的影响存在显著区域差异特征,中西部地区互联网发展对生态效率的提升作用优于东部和东北地区,这种提升效应整体呈现“西部—中部—东北部—东部”的降序排列;同时,互联网发展对非省会城市、经济欠发达城市、非资源性城市生态效率的影响效应更明显。机制分析的结果印证了互联网影响城市生态效率的传导机制主要是产业结构合理化、高级化和创新能力。基于此,本文围绕互联网发展和城市生态效率的共同促进提出了相关建议。

Promoting the improvement of ecological environment and enhancing regional ecological efficiency with the help of internet technology is an inherent requirement for high-quality economic development in the new era.This paper proposes the direct and indirect impact mechanisms of internet development on ecological efficiency at the theoretical level,and empirically tests the data of 285 cities above prefecture level in China from 2005 to 2019 as a sample.The results show that internet development can promote urban eco-efficiency regardless of whether control variables are added or not,and this result is robust under the exclusion of sample cities,replacement of core explanatory variables,and consideration of quasi-natural experiments.Heterogeneity analysis shows that there is significant regional heterogeneity in the impact of internet development on urban eco-efficiency,and the effect of internet development on eco-efficiency in the central and western regions is better than that in the eastern and northeastern regions,and the overall eco-efficiency enhancement effect of the internet development is in the descending order of“west-central-northeast-east”.At the same time,the impact of internet development on the ecological efficiency of non-provincial capital cities,economically underdeveloped cities and non-resource cities is more obvious.The results of the mechanism analysis confirm that the transmission mechanism of the internet affecting urban eco-efficiency is mainly the rationalization of industrial structure,optimization of industrial structure and innovation capacity.Based on this,the article puts forward relevant suggestions around the joint promotion of both.