Optimizing the allocation of hydropower resources is essential for aligning high-quality economic growth with China’s carbon neutrality goals. Due to constraints such as market segmentation and government regulation, the resource allocation function of the Chinese market has not been effectively utilized, which leads to hydropower resources being allocated inefficiently. In the digital age, it is valuable to investigate whether digital economic development can rectify the misallocation of hydropower resources and whether the corrective effects exhibit temporal dynamics and spatial heterogeneity. Accordingly, this study employs panel data collected from 30 provincial-level administrative regions in China from 2000 to 2023, employing the production function method combined with a counterfactual analysis framework for quantifying the degree of hydropower resource mismatch. Additionally, panel vector autoregression models and panel threshold regression utilized for discussing spatio-temporal effects of digital economic development on hydropower resource mismatch. Empirical results demonstrate that digital economic development significantly curbs hydropower resource misallocation, albeit with a discernible time lag. When the digital economy experiences a positive impulse shock, its impact on the hydropower resources mismatch emerges in the first lag period, peaks in the second lag period, and then stabilizes. Secondly, the corrective impact of digital economic development on hydropower resources mismatch is contingent upon the level of regional industrialization, which is more pronounced in regions with higher levels of industrialization. In conclusion, this paper offers evidence-based policy recommendations to facilitate the localized implementation of digital economy policies and enhance the efficiency of hydropower resources allocation.

Enhancing the allocation efficiency of hydropower resources is critical to achieving China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. Based on panel data of 29 Chinese regions from 2001 to 2020, this study first measures the degree of hydropower resource misallocation via a counterfactual decomposition approach, and then adopts a threshold model to explore the impact of green finance on hydropower resource misallocation. The results show that: (1) Western and southwestern regions with abundant hydropower resources yet insufficient economic absorption capacity suffer from hydropower oversupply, while eastern coastal and central regions with advanced economies and intensive industries face hydropower undersupply. The inverse spatial distribution pattern of hydropower supply and demand cores reflects prominent hydropower resource misallocation. (2) Green finance has an inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship with hydropower resource misallocation. Moderate development of green finance can improve hydropower resource allocation efficiency, yet exceeding the optimal threshold may trigger problems including greenwashing and thus exacerbate hydropower resource misallocation.

Enhancing the resilience of renewable energy enterprises is crucial for advancing the energy revolution and building a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient energy system. Against the background of an accelerating energy transition and rising external uncertainty, renewable energy enterprises face multiple challenges, including technological iteration, policy adjustments, and market fluctuations. Thus, enhancing enterprise resilience through digital transformation has become a key issue for promoting high-quality development in the energy industry. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed renewable energy companies covering the period 2014–2024, this study empirically examines the impact of digital transformation on the resilience of these enterprises and the underlying mechanisms. The results show that digital transformation can significantly enhance enterprise resilience, a finding that remains robust after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis indicates that digital transformation enhances resilience mainly by alleviating financing constraints, optimizing resource allocation, and improving innovation quality. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that the resilience-enhancing effect of digital transformation varies across enterprises of different sizes and life-cycle stages. This paper provides empirical evidence that renewable energy enterprises can rely on digital technologies to strengthen their risk resilience and improve their sustainable development.

Geopolitical conflicts continue to disrupt global energy supply chains, causing sharp changes in energy prices. These changes reshape the cost structure and efficiency levels of grain circulation. Based on panel data from 30 Chinese provinces covering 2011–2022, this study constructs a proxy for grain circulation efficiency using a resource misallocation framework and counterfactual decomposition. We employ panel threshold regression and double machine learning methods to systematically examine the nonlinear impact of energy price levels on grain circulation efficiency and to reveal regional differences. The findings are as follows: (1) Energy price levels exhibit a significant single-threshold effect. When energy prices remain within a low range, rising prices exert a positive technology push effect; beyond the threshold, a cost-squeeze suppression dominates. (2) The eastern region shows the highest tolerance for price increases, whereas the western region has the lowest tolerance, with the central region falling in between. (3) Double machine learning feature importance analysis reveals that research and experimental development investment and economic development are the dominant factors affecting agricultural product circulation efficiency in the eastern region; water consumption and capital stock are the key factors in the central region; and energy prices, foreign trade dependence, and infrastructure are the most sensitive factors in the western region. This study provides empirical evidence for designing differentiated regional circulation policies and enhancing the resilience of the grain circulation system.

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