["Facilitate" or "Hinder"： Impact of Spatial Connectivity Networks in the Digital Economy on Carbon Performance]

This study took 254 cities in China from 2011 to 2021 as samples to empirically test how the spatial correlation network characteristics and node centrality of the urban digital economy affect carbon emission performance. The research showed that ① China's urban digital economy showed an obvious network development mode, but from the perspective of network node centrality, there were still significant spatial differences, showing the hierarchical distribution law of "eastern region-central and western region" and "four core urban agglomerations-four non-core urban agglomerations." ② A significant positive correlation was observed between the digital economy spatial correlation network and carbon emission performance. This conclusion was still supported after the control of the endogeneity problem and the robustness test. ③ Human capital investment had a positive moderating effect on the spatial correlation network of the digital economy and carbon emission performance. ④ The impact mechanism showed that the spatial correlation network of the digital economy could promote the improvement of carbon emission performance through industrial regional linkages and innovation cooperation networks. ⑤ Upon further analysis, the empirical results showed heterogeneity in four dimensions： geographic region, core urban agglomeration, urban resource endowment, and city size.