E-commerce development and carbon emission efficiency: Evidence from 240 cities in China

How to improve carbon emission efficiency (CEE) to achieve sustainable economic development has triggered contemplation among society and policy-makers. Previous studies have confirmed that e-commerce development can reduce local carbon emissions, but the impact of e-commerce development on CEE is unclear. This paper investigates the impact of e-commerce development on CEE and its spatial spillover effect using Chinese city-level panel data, taking the National Ecommerce Demonstration City (NEDC) policy as a quasi-natural experiment. Results show that the NEDC policy significantly improves local CEE by promoting industrial structure upgrading, green technology innovation, and improving energy efficiency. The influence is more pronounced in regions with inadequate information infrastructure, unfavorable business environment, and limited marketization. However, the NEDC policy has a negative spatial spillover effect, reducing surrounding cities' CEE. The findings unveil the complicated impact of e-commerce development on CEE and offer policy implications for improving inter-regional carbon reduction synergy and low-carbon economic transformation.