With the development of digital technologies such as the Internet and digital industries such as e-commerce, the digital economy has become a new form of economic and social development, which has brought forth a new perspective for environmental governance, energy conservation, and emission reduction. Based on data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2018, this study applies the space and threshold models to empirically examine the digital economy’s influence on haze pollution and its spatial spillover. Furthermore, it investigates the spatial diffusion effect of regional digital economic development and haze pollution by constructing a spatial weight matrix. Subsequently, an instrumental variable robustness test is performed. Results indicate the following: (1) Haze pollution has spatial spillover effects and high emission aggregation characteristics, with haze pollution in neighbouring provinces significantly aggravating pollution levels in the focal province. (2) China’s digital economy has positively impacted haze pollution, with digital economic development having a significant effect (i.e., most prominent in eastern China) on reducing haze pollution. (3) Changing the energy structure and supporting innovation can restrain haze pollution, and the digital economy can reduce the path mechanism of haze pollution through the mediating effect of an advanced industrial structure. It shows a non-linear characteristic that the influence of haze reduction continues to weaken. Thus, policymakers should include the digital economy as a mechanism for ecologically sustainable development in haze pollution control.

This paper addresses the impact of digital infrastructure construction within cities on the labour market in firms. Using the ‘Broadband China’ policy as a quasi-natural experiment, and employing panel data of companies listed on the Chinese stock market from 2011 to 2018, we apply a difference in differences (DID) and propensity score matching (PSM)-DID model, and a series of robustness tests to analyse labour demand amongst firms. We find a strong and positive link between digital infrastructure construction and firm labour demand, which is driven by the reduction in management costs and financial constraints. In addition, the positive effect of digital infrastructure on firm labour demand is concentrated in firms in China’ s eastern and central regions, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), low competitiveness firms, substantial industrial investment intensity firms, industrial high value-added firms and non-information and communications technology(ICT) industry firms. Meanwhile, digital infrastructure shows heterogeneous effects on different labour demands within enterprises, with the most adverse effect on the demand for low-educated labour. Our findings provide a solution to the problem of ‘stable employment’ based on the perspective of digital economy development. They also provide policy inspiration for governments that are aiming to effectively implement China’s ‘Powerful Digital Nation’ strategy.

This paper focuses on the impact of the “Digital Economy” on rural entrepreneurship. Unlike previous literature, the perspective of this paper focuses on a specific industry—tourism—and identifies a new mediating mechanism by which the “Digital Economy” affects rural tourism entrepreneurship—the promotion of innovation. The paper further clarifies the fact that the “Rural Digital Economy Index,” which is a dimension of the Digital Economy Indicator System, is the key to the mechanism of action. Theoretically, first, through a literature review, this paper provides a rationale for the “Digital Economy” to promote innovation behavior by reducing the cost of innovation. Second, using a product matching model, this paper argues that a rural tourism market characterized by innovation can stimulate more entrepreneurship. Empirically, using a sample of 150 counties in the Yangtze River Delta region of China, this paper argues that the higher the digitalization index of a county’s rural economy, the more national model villages and towns this county has (all of which include product innovation in the selection criteria) and more tourism entrepreneurial activities. Econometric methods such as endogeneity, spatial econometric regression, and sensitivity analysis proved the findings robust. Our recommendation is that the Chinese government could focus on improving the innovation environment for rural residents in the future, so that entrepreneurial activities will be spontaneously stimulated by market mechanisms.