Towards high-quality development: how does digital economy impact low-carbon inclusive development?: mechanism and...

High-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in an all-around way. Innovation, coordination, green development, openness, and sharing are the main connotations of high-quality development. Based on panel data from 286 cities in China, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of the digital economy on low-carbon inclusive development (hereinafter referred to as LIG). The results show that the digital economy has a salient promoting effect on LIG, and with the increase of quantile level, the promoting effect shows a marginal decreasing trend. Heterogeneity analysis found that the cities with low resource dependence and marketization of the digital economy and high environmental concern and competition have more salient promoting effects on LIG. The dimensionality reduction analysis shows that the impact of digital economy on economic growth, social inclusion, and low-carbon ecology gradually increases in turn. The mechanism test shows that R&D investment, green innovation, and market integration play a partial mediating role, while entrepreneurial activity, industrial upgrading, and development imbalance play a fully mediating role. Digital economy promotes urban economic growth and low-carbon ecological development through R&D investment and market integration and mainly promotes low-carbon ecological development through green innovation. The digital economy will promote low-carbon and inclusive urban development by stimulating entrepreneurship, promoting industrial upgrading, and alleviating development imbalances.