How does internet development affect urban eco-resilience: evidence from China

The crucial role of internet development in ecological governance has been widely recognized, but there has been little research focusing on the relationship between internet development and urban eco-resilience. Using panel data from 282 China’s prefecture-level cities between 2003 and 2020, this study comprehensively investigates internet development’ impact on urban eco-resilience, quantifying its direct and spatial spillover effects, and examining its mechanisms, heterogeneities, nonlinear and exogenous policy shock effect. The findings indicate: (1) Internet development can boost urban eco-resilience but have negative spillover effects on surrounding cities, as confirmed by various robustness checks. (2) Significant heterogeneities exist in internet development’s impact on urban eco-resilience. Non-resource-based cities benefit, while resource-based cities show limited effect. Non-environmentally-focused and central cities benefit more from internet development compared to environmentally-focused and peripheral cities. Surrounding cities of non-resource-based and central cities experience weakened eco-resilience due to internet development, but the negative effects are less pronounced in resource-based and peripheral cities. (3) Green innovation, industrial structure upgrading, and resource allocation optimization are verified as three key channels for enhancing urban eco-resilience through internet development. (4) The relation between internet development and urban eco-resilience exhibits a nonlinear pattern, and the exogenous policy shock effect analysis also confirms the robustness of the baseline regression results. The conclusions above contribute valuable insights into the strategies and approaches that can be adopted to leverage the potential of internet development in fostering urban eco-resilience for China and other developing countries.