As an integration of artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing technology, intelligent manufacturing has realized the innovation of manufacturing mode and created conditions for the green development of industry. After constructing a theoretical framework between intelligent manufacturing and industrial green total factor productivity, this paper uses panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2020, and expresses the level of intelligent manufacturing with industrial robot density, to discuss the economic effects and mechanisms of intelligent manufacturing. The results show that intelligent manufacturing has a positive effect on industrial green total factor productivity, and the panel quantile regression model indicates that there is an increasing marginal effect. With the quantile points going from low to high, the coefficient and statistical significance become larger. Human capital is the mechanism for intelligent manufacturing to improve industrial green total factor productivity. Green technology innovation and producer service industry agglomeration have strengthened the positive effect. There is also heterogeneity in the effect, and the stronger the effect in regions launched local pilot schemes for carbon emissions trading and industrial green transformation development policy. In order to give full play to the technological dividend and empower sustainable industrial development, the paper argues that we need to accelerate the integration of artificial intelligence and manufacturing technology, thus improving the level of industrial intelligence and empowering green development.
IntroductionPromoting the development of digital technology is an important step in meeting the challenge of global climate change and achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.MethodsBased on panel data of Chinese cities from 2006 to 2020, this paper used econometrics to investigate the impact and mechanism of digital technology on carbon emissions.ResultsThe results showed that digital technology can significantly reduce carbon emission intensity and improve carbon emission efficiency. These results remained robust after changing the estimation method, adding policy omission variables, replacing core variables, and solving the endogeneity problem. Digital technology can indirectly reduce carbon emissions by promoting green technological innovation and reducing energy intensity, and it plays a significant role in the carbon emission reduction practices of carbon emission trading policies and comprehensive national big data pilot zones. The replicability, non-exclusivity, and high mobility of digital technology help to accelerate the spread of knowledge and information between different cities, which leads to a spillover effect on carbon emission reductions. Our unconditional quantile regression model results showed that digital technology’s carbon emission reduction effect continuously decreases with increases in carbon dioxide emissions.DiscussionThe results of this paper provide evidence for the potential use of digital technology in achieving the goal of carbon neutrality, which is of great significance for achieving high-quality innovation and promoting the green transformation of the economy and society.
Factor mismatch is considered to be an important restriction on the growth of total factor productivity. Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2013 to 2019, this work first measures the digital economy development index of each Chinese province by using a particle swarm optimization projection pursuit model, followed by a panel econometric model, to verify the effect of the digital economy and artificial intelligence manufacturing on the labor-resource mismatch. The results show that, from 2013 to 2019, China’s digital economy generally showed a trend of steady progress, with an average annual growth rate of 12.10%. The mismatch index of the labor force dropped by 1.46% every year, and the situation of insufficient or surplus allocation of labor force resources in China was alleviated. The fitting results of the spatial econometric model show that the digital economy can reduce the labor mismatch index, and this conclusion has remained valid after a series of robustness tests. The intermediary mechanism shows that intelligent manufacturing plays a masking role in the process of alleviating labor misallocation in the digital economy. Artificial intelligence cannot alleviate labor mismatches, but it strengthens the corrective function of the digital economy.
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