The United Nations Organization states that well-being consists of universal goals and aspirations in human life throughout the world. The arrival of the digital age has a profound impact on humans’ way of production and life. While material living standards continue to improve, happiness has become the pursuit of social residents. Based on the theory of happiness economics, we use the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data to construct an Ordered Probit fixed-effect model and systematically investigate the dividend and disparities of digital literacy on rural residents’ subjective well-being in China, such as age, gender, region, education attainment, and so on. The results indicate that digital literacy significantly strengthens rural residents’ subjective well-being. Under the influence of digital literacy, subjective well-being is heterogeneous in individuals’ natural and social attributes. Further mechanism tests show that rural residents’ digital literacy strengthens subjective well-being through income generation, consumption upgrading, and social belonging effects. In consequence, the government should promote the construction of digital infrastructure, focus on the penetration and quality of digital technology, digital skill education and training, and guiding residents to utilize digital technology properly. Our study furthers the understanding of residents’ well-being and highlights digital literacy as a means to boost well-being, reduce regional development gaps, and support sustainable development.

Purpose: This paper takes 267 prefecture-level cities that have implemented the “Broadband China” strategy as empirical research objects, aiming to study the impact of digital infrastructure on the green eco-efficiency of Chinese cities and put forward corresponding policy recommendations based on the empirical results. Design/methodology/approach: By integrating the super-efficiency Undesirable-SBM model with the asymptotic difference-in-differences approach, the research delves into the policy impacts and the mechanisms by which digital infrastructure affects urban green eco-efficiency. Findings: The results reveal a notable influence of advancements in digital infrastructure on the eco-efficiency of urban areas, and these advancements have the capacity to bolster eco-efficiency through the influence of green technological innovation, the upgrading of industrial structure, and its rationalization. Notably, significant variations are found in the effectiveness of digital infrastructure in boosting eco-efficiency, with the effect being relatively stronger for large-scale cities and eastern regions. Originality/value: From a research standpoint, this paper seeks breakthroughs in harmonizing ecological environments with economic quality in the digital era’s new paradigms. Methodologically, it avoids the incomparability of traditional measurements, ensuring accurate urban ecological efficiency assessments. Content-wise, it elucidates how the digital economy enhances eco-efficiency through green technological innovation, industrial structure advancement and rationalization. This comprehensive analysis provides valuable insights for China and similar developing nations on balancing green ecological efficiency with urban digitization, offering practical guidance for sustainable development.

The responsible low-carbon behavior of household residents is a crucial factor for the purpose of achieving carbon neutrality in the economy and society. Based on the peer effects theory, this study constructs a fixed-effects model to empirically analyze the existence, heterogeneity, and action mechanism of peer effects in household carbon emission behavior, which uses panel data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS). The results indicate that peer effects have a significantly positive impact on residents’ carbon emission behavior, and the results are verified by the robustness test in various ways. Further mechanism tests show that peer effects influence carbon emission behavior through methods including the learning imitation mechanism and competitive imitation mechanism. In addition, we find that peer effects have different impacts on residents’ carbon emission behavior in varying regions, income levels, education levels, and ages groups. This study aims to embed residents’ carbon emission behavior into the strong relationship between surrounding groups, raise consumers low-carbon awareness through publicity, guidance, and group interaction, form a low-carbon atmosphere for the whole society, and contribute to the realization of Sustainable Development Goals.

The integration of agricultural and tourism industries is an important way for underdeveloped regions to build economic development momentum with a distinctive industrial system, and digital technology or artificial intelligence provides opportunities for industrial integration and innovative development. Using panel data from 17 prefecture-level cities in the former Central Soviet Area of Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong Provinces spanning from 2012 to 2021, this study empirically examines the impact of digital intelligence on the integration of agricultural and tourism industries, along with its underlying mechanisms. The empirical results show that digital intelligence can significantly promote the integration of agricultural and tourism industries, but intelligence contributes less to the integration of agricultural and tourism than digitization. In addition, digital intelligence promotes the integration of agricultural and tourism industries through the industrial structure, threshold-lowing, and consumer demand effects. Moreover, the empowering effect of digital intelligence in the cities of the Jiangxi Region is greater than that of the Fujian and Guangdong Regions.