Ziyuan Kexue (Jul 2024)
The influence and mechanism of national big data comprehensive pilot zone on urban environmental pollution: Causal inference based on double machine learning
Abstract
[Objective] The establishment of the national big data comprehensive pilot zone is an important method for promoting the digitization and scientific advancement of environmental protection. This paper aims to study how the construction of pilot zones affects environmental pollution, providing a theoretical basis for fully leveraging the policy effectiveness of the pilot zones and promoting green development. [Methods] Using panel data from 274 Chinese cities from 2010 to 2020, we calculated a comprehensive environmental pollution index for each city. We then treated the construction of the “national big data comprehensive pilot zone” (hereinafter referred to as the pilot zone) as a quasi-natural experiment and employed double machine learning to investigate the impact and mechanisms through which the pilot zone affected urban environmental pollution, as well as its heterogeneous characteristics. [Results] (1) The pilot zone significantly reduce environmental pollution in its cities. This conclusion remained valid after a series of robustness tests, including winsorizing the sample, changing the sample splitting ratio, and altering the machine learning algorithms used. (2) The pilot zone can indirectly inhibit urban environmental pollution through three pathways: green technological innovation, human capital input, and environmental regulation. (3) In terms of heterogeneity, the pilot zone had a significant positive effect on reducing urban environmental pollution in non-resource-based cities, central cities and cities with higher pollution levels. [Conclusion] Therefore, we recommend to strengthen top-level design and fully utilize the pilot zone to promote environmental protection. Strategies should be tailored to local conditions to implement differentiated development plans. Additionally, the key roles of green technological innovation, human capital, and environmental regulations should be leveraged to alleviate environmental burdens.
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