Moving towards Environmental Sustainability: Can Digital Economy Reduce Environmental Degradation in China?

In the context of environmental sustainability and accelerated digital technology development, China attaches great importance to the prominent role of digital economy in addressing environmental degradation. Utilizing Chinese provincial panel data from 2011 to 2019, this study investigates whether the digital economy can improve China's environmental sustainability proxy by reducing carbon emission intensity. Based on the fixed effects model, the findings reveal that the digital economy has a significant negative effect on carbon emission intensity and the conclusion remains robust after conducting several robustness checks. However, this impact shows regional heterogeneity, which is more effective in resource-based eastern regions and the Belt and Road provinces. Moreover, mediating effect analyses indicate that the transmission mechanisms are energy consumption structure, total factor energy productivity, and green technology innovation. Furthermore, the results based on the spatial Durbin model (SDM) demonstrate that digital economy development has a significant spatial spillover effect. Finally, on the basis of results analysis and discussion, policy recommendations are provided for achieving environmental sustainability.

The Impact of Social Media on Employee Mental Health and Behavior Based on the Context of Intelligence-Driven Digital Data.

With the rapid development and widespread popularity of the Internet, employee social media use at work has become an increasingly common phenomenon in organizations. This paper analyzes 105 related papers from the Social Science Citation Index in Web of Science through Scoping Review to clarify the definition and characteristics of employee social media use and the types of social media and summarizes the current research methods. Then, the reasons for employees' willingness and refusal to use social media and the positive and negative effects of employee social media use on employees' work attitudes, behaviors, and performance are discussed. Then, the mediating variables, moderating variables, and theoretical frameworks used in the relevant studies are described, and a comprehensive model of employee social media use is constructed. Finally, this paper indicates future research directions based on the latest research results in 2020-2022, i.e., improving research methods, increasing antecedent studies, expanding consequence research, and expanding mediating variables, moderating variables, and theoretical perspectives.

Effects of land urbanization and internet penetration on environmental sustainability: a cross-regional study of China.

China has pledged to peak its carbon dioxide emissions (CEM) before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. The energy consumption related to land urbanization (LURB) and internet penetration (INT) may have a significant impact on CEM. It is critical for China to obtain a better understanding of the interaction among them in order to tackle challenges of climate change in the digital era. Initially, the multivariate panel bootstrap Granger causality test is conducted to estimate the causal effects of LURB and INT on CEM in China. The results reveal that the interaction patterns among them varied across different provinces, and particularly LURB and INT are two determinants of CEM mainly in Eastern China, which is consistent with the stochastic differential model. Then, CEM is not a Granger-cause of LURB and INT in the majority of Chinese provinces, as LURB and INT largely depend on government policies and industrial development. In addition, there are no significant interactions between LURB and CEM in over two-thirds of the provinces and there are also none between INT and CEM in over half of the Chinese provinces. Therefore, Chinese policymakers should further adopt differentiated and efficient policies targeting the weak links and achieve environmental sustainability through low carbon transition.

Population Health Effects of Air Pollution: Fresh Evidence From China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey.

The effects of air pollution on population health are currently a hot topic. However, few studies have examined the physical and mental health effects of air pollution jointly in China. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2015 and 2018, this study explores how air pollution affects the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly residents. The empirical results highlight that air pollution can negatively affect both physical and mental health. In terms of physical health, those exposed to chronic shock are likely to suffer more adverse effects from air pollution than those exposed to acute shock. In terms of mental health, those exposed to depression suffer greater adverse effects than those exposed to episodic memory and mental cognition. Besides, heterogeneity analysis also shows that air pollution affects the mental and physical health of males more than females. Furthermore, the increase in air pollution is expected to result in huge hospitalization costs. Therefore, the Chinese government should formulate differentiated public health policies to reduce the effects of air pollution on the health of middle-aged and elderly residents.