Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too? The Impact of Digital Infrastructure Construction on Urban Ecological Welfare Performance—A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “Broadband China” Strategy

Based on the panel data of 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2021, this paper takes the pilot policy of “Broadband China” as a natural experiment to evaluate the impact of digital infrastructure construction on urban ecological welfare performance and its mechanism by using a progres...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Song Yu, Dong Liu, Jianzhong Gao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-12-01
Series:Land
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/12/2125
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1846104029876191232
author Song Yu
Dong Liu
Jianzhong Gao
author_facet Song Yu
Dong Liu
Jianzhong Gao
author_sort Song Yu
collection DOAJ
description Based on the panel data of 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2021, this paper takes the pilot policy of “Broadband China” as a natural experiment to evaluate the impact of digital infrastructure construction on urban ecological welfare performance and its mechanism by using a progressive difference–difference model. The results show that China’s digital infrastructure construction will significantly reduce the performance of urban ecological welfare. Through the analysis of input and output, it is found that the construction of digital infrastructure can significantly reduce resource consumption and increase welfare output, especially economic welfare, but at the level of environmental pollution, it will significantly increase the discharge of industrial wastewater, which may be the main reason for the negative effect of digital infrastructure construction. Through the group analysis, it is found that the overall negative impact of digital infrastructure construction on ecological welfare performance may be caused by the ecologically fragile western region and the unreasonable industrial structure. Through the adjustment model, it is found that innovation investment can positively regulate the negative impact of digital infrastructure on ecological welfare performance. The grey model (GM) is further used to forecast the data for 2022–2025, and it is found that while the negative impact of digital infrastructure is decreasing, it is still significant. This study provides empirical evidence for accurately understanding the effect and mechanism of digital infrastructure construction on ecological welfare performance.
format Article
id doaj-art-b9d958cad18142d5b6664edb4b639224
institution Kabale University
issn 2073-445X
language English
publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Land
spelling doaj-art-b9d958cad18142d5b6664edb4b6392242024-12-27T14:35:12ZengMDPI AGLand2073-445X2024-12-011312212510.3390/land13122125Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too? The Impact of Digital Infrastructure Construction on Urban Ecological Welfare Performance—A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “Broadband China” StrategySong Yu0Dong Liu1Jianzhong Gao2School of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, ChinaSchool of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, ChinaSchool of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, ChinaBased on the panel data of 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2021, this paper takes the pilot policy of “Broadband China” as a natural experiment to evaluate the impact of digital infrastructure construction on urban ecological welfare performance and its mechanism by using a progressive difference–difference model. The results show that China’s digital infrastructure construction will significantly reduce the performance of urban ecological welfare. Through the analysis of input and output, it is found that the construction of digital infrastructure can significantly reduce resource consumption and increase welfare output, especially economic welfare, but at the level of environmental pollution, it will significantly increase the discharge of industrial wastewater, which may be the main reason for the negative effect of digital infrastructure construction. Through the group analysis, it is found that the overall negative impact of digital infrastructure construction on ecological welfare performance may be caused by the ecologically fragile western region and the unreasonable industrial structure. Through the adjustment model, it is found that innovation investment can positively regulate the negative impact of digital infrastructure on ecological welfare performance. The grey model (GM) is further used to forecast the data for 2022–2025, and it is found that while the negative impact of digital infrastructure is decreasing, it is still significant. This study provides empirical evidence for accurately understanding the effect and mechanism of digital infrastructure construction on ecological welfare performance.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/12/2125digital infrastructureecological welfare performanceBroadband China
spellingShingle Song Yu
Dong Liu
Jianzhong Gao
Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too? The Impact of Digital Infrastructure Construction on Urban Ecological Welfare Performance—A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “Broadband China” Strategy
Land
digital infrastructure
ecological welfare performance
Broadband China
title Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too? The Impact of Digital Infrastructure Construction on Urban Ecological Welfare Performance—A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “Broadband China” Strategy
title_full Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too? The Impact of Digital Infrastructure Construction on Urban Ecological Welfare Performance—A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “Broadband China” Strategy
title_fullStr Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too? The Impact of Digital Infrastructure Construction on Urban Ecological Welfare Performance—A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “Broadband China” Strategy
title_full_unstemmed Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too? The Impact of Digital Infrastructure Construction on Urban Ecological Welfare Performance—A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “Broadband China” Strategy
title_short Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too? The Impact of Digital Infrastructure Construction on Urban Ecological Welfare Performance—A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “Broadband China” Strategy
title_sort can t have your cake and eat it too the impact of digital infrastructure construction on urban ecological welfare performance a quasi natural experiment based on the broadband china strategy
topic digital infrastructure
ecological welfare performance
Broadband China
url https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/12/2125
work_keys_str_mv AT songyu canthaveyourcakeandeatittootheimpactofdigitalinfrastructureconstructiononurbanecologicalwelfareperformanceaquasinaturalexperimentbasedonthebroadbandchinastrategy
AT dongliu canthaveyourcakeandeatittootheimpactofdigitalinfrastructureconstructiononurbanecologicalwelfareperformanceaquasinaturalexperimentbasedonthebroadbandchinastrategy
AT jianzhonggao canthaveyourcakeandeatittootheimpactofdigitalinfrastructureconstructiononurbanecologicalwelfareperformanceaquasinaturalexperimentbasedonthebroadbandchinastrategy