Does digital dividend matter in China's green low-carbon development: Environmental impact assessment of the big data comprehensive pilot zones policy

Currently, data is increasingly becoming a crucial production factor and strategic resource for economic development. However, there is no consensus on whether data plays a significant role in promoting city green development. This paper examines the effect and the mechanism of big data on carbon emission reduction based on a quasi-natural experiment of Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zones (BDCPZ) in China, using a difference-in-difference approach and combining panel data from 261 cities in China from 2010 to 2019. The study found that: (1) The policy of BDCPZ significantly reduced carbon emissions, which confirms the critical importance of the digital dividend in China's green development process. (2) We find the emission reduction effect of BDCPZ is achieved in three main ways: promoting industrial upgrading, improving energy use efficiency and increasing green TFP in manufacturing. (3) Further analysis reveals that the carbon emission reduction effect of BDCPZ varies depending on city population size, levels of manufacturing development, resource endowments, and pilot cities with low carbon related policies. This paper empirically confirms the digital dividend in city green transformation, provides evidence and policy guidance for the broad application of the digital economy in the field of green and low-carbon development, and enriches research in development economics and environmental economics. It helps to provide novel policy insights for the government to implement proactive policies of carbon reduction, and to build a diversified carbon reduction governance system to successfully achieve “carbon peak” and “carbon neutral” targets. •We empirically identified the digital dividend in China's green transformation using the BDCPZ policy.•We explored three mechanisms of BDCPZ construction for green development.•The digital dividend is greater in large cities, advanced manufacturing bases and non-resource-based cities.•The digital dividend is amplified in pilot cities for carbon trading and low-carbon cities.