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eISSN: 2083-5906
ISSN: 1230-1485
ISSN: 1230-1485
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Does Digital Finance Promote Green Innovation
Efficiency in China? Evidence from a Spatial
Spillover Perspective
1
Department of economics and management, Qingdao University of Science and Technology,
Qingdao, Shandong, 266000, China
Submission date: 2024-09-23
Final revision date: 2025-03-12
Acceptance date: 2025-06-11
Online publication date: 2025-08-21
Corresponding author
Tonggong Zhang
Department of economics and management, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, 266000, China
Department of economics and management, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, 266000, China
KEYWORDS
digital financegreen innovation efficiencyspatial spillover effectregional heterogeneitymoderating mechanism
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
As an emerging financial model created by technological empowerment, digital finance has
significantly impacted green innovation. However, research on the spatial spillover impact of digital
finance on green innovation efficiency (GIE) is rather lacking. To fill this gap, this paper constructs
a Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) to analyze the spatial spillover effects and regional heterogeneity of
digital finance on enhancing GIE, based on the measurement of the GIE in 271 prefecture-level cities
in China during 2011-2021 by applying the SBM model. Furthermore, the impact path is explored
at the end. The results reveal that: (1) The GIE in China remains relatively low, and the average value
of GIE in China and its four regions exhibits a fluctuating upward trend and presents as follows:
East>Northeast>Central>West; (2) The spatial spillover effect of digital finance on GIE shows that
it significantly promotes GIE locally and suppresses the GIE in the adjacent cities; (3) Heterogeneity
analysis shows that in central cities, low-carbon pilot cities, and cities with higher human capital,
the impact of digital finance on GIE is more significant; (4) The spatial effect of digital finance on GIE
is moderated by human capital.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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