ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1658767
This article is part of the Research TopicUrban Economic Aspects of Energy, Exergy, and Environmental SustainabilityView all 6 articles
Digital Innovation, Institutional Environment and Air Quality Improvement
Provisionally accepted
- Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
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The advancement of digital innovation has provided new perspectives for promoting green and sustainable development. This study examines data from 285 prefecture-level cities in China between 2015 and 2022 to systematically investigate the impact of digital innovation on air quality improvement, with a specific focus on the moderating role of institutional environment in the relationship between digital innovation and air quality enhancement. The findings reveal that the development of digital innovation has a significant positive effect on air quality improvement, a conclusion that remains robust after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis indicates that digital innovation can improve air quality through channels such as optimizing industrial structure, increasing government expenditure on energy conservation and environmental protection, promoting green technology advancement, and facilitating the development of digital finance. Heterogeneity tests demonstrate that the air governance effect of digital innovation is more pronounced in central cities, large-scale cities, and cities with higher levels of education investment. Further analysis shows that the institutional environment can amplify the positive impact of digital innovation on air quality, particularly in regions with well-developed institutional environments, such as cities with sound market mechanisms, favorable financial innovation conditions, and high economic openness. Therefore, it is essential to strengthen the foundation of digital innovation and optimize the support of institutional environment to improve air quality.
Keywords: digital innovation, Institutional environment, Air Quality, Industrial structure upgrading, governmental energy-saving and environmental protection financial expenditure, green technology advancement, Digital financial development
Received: 03 Jul 2025; Accepted: 04 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ren, Huang and Ren. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hang Ren, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
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