Does digital economy policy benefit green innovation? Evidence from heavily polluting industries in China
研究中国数字经济政策对重污染行业绿色创新的影响，发现政策通过产业结构升级显著促进了重污染行业的绿色创新，且对国有比例低、全要素生产率高或资本依赖度高的行业效果更强。
This study investigates the impact of China’s Digital Economic Policy (DEP) on industries’ green innovation. It contributes to the existing literature on technology policy evaluation by challenging the assumption that this impact is similar across different industries. To achieve this, a conceptual framework is proposed, highlighting the asymmetric influence of the DEP on green innovation. By analysing panel data from 35 Chinese industrial subsectors, including 15 heavily polluting industries (HPIs) and 20 non-HPIs, between 2010 and 2020, this study reveals that the implementation of the DEP results in significantly higher levels of green innovation of HPIs as opposed to non-HPIs. The DEP’s positive impact on green innovation of HPIs is primarily facilitated through industrial structure upgrading. Moreover, this study finds that the DEP has a greater effect on green innovation of HPIs with a lower state-owned ratio, higher total factor productivity or higher capital dependence.