Can internet development accelerate the green innovation efficiency convergence: Evidence from China

The development of internet has become an important driver that aids in promoting technological innovation and environmental governance. Using Chinese city-level data for the period 2004–2018, the urban green innovation efficiency (GIE) was calculated based on the super-Epsilon-based measure model under metafrontier (M-Super-EBM). Based on this, the convergence characteristic of China's urban GIE was then investigated. This study further probed whether the development of internet has accelerated the green innovation efficiency convergence. The Empirical results revealed that China's urban GIE appeared an upward trend during the sample period. East China had the largest GIE and technology gap ratio (TGR) index. Moreover, the existence of σ convergence, β convergence, and stochastic convergence reference to China's urban GIE was validated. Club convergence analysis results showed that, the whole sample can be divided into 3 groups with 172, 111 and 1 cities, respectively. Internet development significantly promotes the China's urban GIE. The estimated results remained valid after a range of robustness checks. Results imply that, it is of great significance to develop internet infrastructure and promote the growth of GIE.