Rural E-commerce policy and environmental pollution: Evidence from China's poverty-stricken counties

Eradicating extreme poverty and protecting the environment are two significant tasks in the historical development of humanity. However, poverty alleviation policies may also lead to environmental pollution while generating economic benefits. This paper examines the influence of the "Rural E-commerce Comprehensive Demonstration" (RECD) project on the air quality of pilot poverty counties through the staggered difference in differences (DID) model with propensity score matching (PSM) method. The results show that RECD project significantly increased air pollution in the pilot counties, despite its benefits in improving local gross agricultural production and rural residents' income. The main reasons are the increased emissions from agricultural machinery, the growth in transportation pollution, and the expansion of waste from the rural construction industry. We found that setting environmental barrier, enhancing green innovation, and improving energy utilization efficiency can mitigate the environmental deterioration caused by the RECD policy.