Does digitalization help green consumption? Empirical test based on the perspective of supply and demand of green products

Green consumption (GC) is an unavoidable choice for mitigating environmental pressures, achieving the "double carbon goal", and promoting the development of a low-carbon, green society as a whole. With the rapid advancement of digitization (Digi), artificial intelligence, big data, and other associated digital technologies have become powerful driving forces for GC from both the supply and demand perspectives. Therefore, a spatial Durbin model (SDM) was utilized to investigate the local and spatial spillover impacts of Digi on GC based on panel data from 2011 to 2020 from 30 Chinese provinces. It was found that: (1) Digi can influence both the supply and demand aspects of green products, establishing a positive correlation with local GC. It also exerted a favorable incentive effect on GC in neighboring provinces through spatial connections and spatial spillover, within the framework of the imitation mechanism. Several robustness tests revealed that the effects remained significant. (2) the enhanced market mechanisms and a favorable competitive environment offered by the high-level market, in addition to the subsidy and incentive mechanisms within the government's Green Consumption Policy (GCP), were instrumental in fostering the development of GC. Consequently, the government's role in "promotion" and the market's role in "pull" had a regulating effect on the impact of Digi on GC. (3) heterogeneity analysis illustrated that Digi had a more significant promoting effect on GC in the comprehensive big data pilot and large-scale industrial digitization areas. Based on this, we suggest that the state increase investment in Digi to provide a foundation for the research and development of green digital technologies. Additionally, the state should promote the construction and improvement of green consumer markets and formulate more incentive or penalty systems conducive to promoting GC. The research results also provide a theoretical basis for the direct and dynamic effects of Digi, as well as inspiration for promoting GC and green sustainable development.