The impact of digital economy development on innovation in renewable energy technologies

Based on Chinese provincial-level data from 2012 to 2020,this paper construct the regional digital economic development index by the CRITIC method and empirically finds an inhibiting effect of the digital economy development on innovation in renewable energy technology (IRETs). A mediation mechanism test shows that the inhibiting effect may be due to serious free-rider problem in IRETs as patent infringements increase in the digital era. Further studies show that moderation effect of public environmental appeal on the relationship between digital economy development and IRETs depends on the level of patent judicial protection. It is found that increasing public environmental appeal will mitigate the negative impact of digital economy development on IRETs for regions with high level of patent judicial protection while enhance the above negative impact for regions with low level of patent judicial protection.