Facilitating or inhibiting? Spatial effects of the digital economy affecting urban green technology innovation

As a new engine for driving high-quality economic development, the rapid development of the digital economy may become the key to stimulating green technology innovation within Chinese urban areas. Based on the panel data of 286 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2019, this study utilizes the spatial Durbin model to decompose the spatial effect of the digital economy on urban green technology innovation. The results show that: (1) The digital economy has a significant role in promoting green technology innovation in Chinese cities and manifests positive spatial spillover effects. (2) Mechanism analysis indicates that the digital economy mainly affects urban green technology innovation through three paths: human capital, financial development, and government support. The magnitude of its role reveals obvious nonlinear effects with an increase in the size of mechanism variables. (3) Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the digital economy in eastern cities illustrates a notable spillover effect, while city clusters present a U-shaped impact feature, that is, the “empowerment effect” on green technology innovation in neighboring areas can only be displayed when the digital economy develops to a certain level. The findings offer a more valuable reference for making decisions to enhance comprehension of the spatial effects of the digital economy development and realize the synergistic development of digitalization and greenization among cities.