The digital economy, spatial spillovers and forestry green total factor productivity

Improving forestry green total factor productivity is important for promoting green and high-quality development of the forestry industry. Meanwhile, there are major expectations that the digital economy, which is the new engine driving China's economic development, will help achieve the green transformation and high-quality development of the industry. We systematically examine the impact of the digital economy on forestry green total factor productivity in dynamic and spatial dimensions using a dynamic panel model, mediating effect model and dynamic spatial Durbin model based on the Non-Radial Directional Distance Function-Luenberger Hicks Moorsteen model; furthermore, we measure forestry green total factor productivity in 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2019. Our results indicate that China's forestry green total factor productivity grew at an average annual rate of 5.03% from 2013 to 2019, maintaining an overall stable growth trend, and the growth rate declined in the order of Central, Eastern, Western, and Northeastern China. At the same time, the positive spatial correlation of green total factor productivity in China's forestry industry increased significantly during this period, and the local spatial correlation showed a trend of gradually shifting to the H–H agglomeration feature, with significant path-dependent characteristics and overall spatial spillover effects. The digital economy can significantly promote an improvement in forestry green total factor productivity, and this conclusion is still valid after robustness tests and endogeneity treatment. The analysis of the mechanism of action shows that industrial structure upgrading and green technology innovation are important mechanisms through which the digital economy can improve forestry green total factor productivity. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the enhancement effect of the digital economy on forestry green total factor productivity is more obvious in the eastern and northeastern regions than in the central and western regions. Finally, according to spatial spillover analysis, the positive effects of the digital economy can have spatial spillover effects on neighboring regions that are geographically close and have similar economies. The research in this paper advances the understanding of the growth drivers of forestry green total factor productivity, the mechanisms, and the regional differences in forestry green total factor productivity as affected by the digital economy.