We aim to explore the impact of economic agglomeration on the development of green total-factor productivity (GTFP) from both theoretical and empirical levels. We use the non-radial directional distance function method to formulate the GTFP index and further empirically study the impact of economic agglomeration on GTFP. The results indicate that: 1) there is a “U-shaped” curve relationship between economic agglomeration and GTFP, and the formation mechanism is that the economic agglomeration has a threshold effect on the agglomeration externalities such as infrastructure sharing, knowledge spillover, and labor market upgrading. 2) The mismatch of industrial structure is an important reason that the economic agglomeration in this region has not produced an obvious spatial spillover effect on other regions; relaxing restrictions on the concentration of economic activity to regional centers would contribute to the improvement of GTFP. 3) GTFP has the classic “snowball effect” in the time dimension but has the obvious “warning effect” in the space and time dimension. The conclusions of the research show that it is necessary to conform to the redistribution of economic geography, promote the rational allocation of human resources in the territorial space, and promote the coordination of economic agglomeration and green economic development goals.

Taking 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020 as a research sample, this paper empirically tests the impact of digital village construction on carbon emissions. This study found that there is an "inverted U" curve relationship between digital rural construction and rural carbon emissions. Agricultural planting structure and agricultural technical efficiency are important ways for digital village construction to produce carbon emission reduction effects. This study also found that the higher the level of economic development, the stronger the carbon emission reduction effect of digital village construction. In addition, there are also significant differences in the carbon emission reduction effect of digital village construction in regions with different environmental regulation intensities. Finally, in terms of the relationship between digital economic activities and carbon emission reduction, the research conclusions of this paper have important implications.

In the context of carbon emissions peak, environmental issues highlight the importance of the green economy, how does economic agglomeration release growth potential and enable the coordinated development of the economy and environment? There are few works of literature to analyze it within the framework of spatial economy. This paper constructs a theoretical model to clarify the influence mechanism of economic agglomeration on green total factor productivity (GTFP), and then uses a dynamic SDM model to test the theoretical hypothesis. This contribution has three main findings. First, there is a "U-shaped" curve relationship between economic agglomeration and GTFP, and the formation mechanism is that economic agglomeration has a threshold effect on the agglomeration externalities such as infrastructure sharing, knowledge spillover, and labor market upgrading. Second, the mismatch of industrial structure is an important reason that the economic agglomeration in this region has not produced an obvious spatial spillover effect on other regions; Relaxing restrictions on the concentration of economic activity to regional centers would contribute to the improvement of GTFP. Third, GTFP has the classic "snowball effect" in the time dimension, but has the obvious "warning effect" in the space and time dimension. Based on this, this paper believes that at the present stage, it is necessary to adapt to the layout of economic geography, promote the rational allocation of human resources in the territorial space, promote the coordination between economic agglomeration and the development goal of green economy, and at the same time, it is necessary to cultivate the cooperative linkage mechanism of green economy development and transformation among cities.