| Title |
Too good to be true: The inverted U-shaped relationship between home-country digitalization and environmental performance |
| ID_Doc |
19524 |
| Authors |
Ahmadova, G; Delgado-Márquez, BL; Pedauga, LE; Leyva-De la Hiz, D |
| Title |
Too good to be true: The inverted U-shaped relationship between home-country digitalization and environmental performance |
| Year |
2022 |
| Published |
|
| DOI |
10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107393 |
| Abstract |
Digitalization has been seen in the past as a panacea as it has been argued that higher digitalization will translate into better environmental performance. As the process of digitalization has advanced, however, some environ-mental drawbacks have been encountered and need to be addressed. We thus explore the inverted U-shaped relationship between home country digitalization and environmental performance. We hypothesize that in the first stage, home country digitalization has a positive impact on environmental performance (e.g., enhanced energy efficiency and resource management), but then it reaches a tipping point at which an excessive level of digitalization causes a "rebound effect," hence increasing the use of resources and resulting in higher pollution. Our panel data of 5015 firms from 47 countries in 10 sectors for the period 2014-2019 confirms our predictions. The panel smooth transition regression model (PSTR) confirms the moderating effect of the level of a country's institutional framework on this relationship between digital transformation and environmental performance. More particularly, our results show that countries with stronger institutional frameworks flatten the inverted U- shaped curve. |
| Author Keywords |
Digitalization; Environmental performance; Inverted U-shaped relationship; Institutional framework; Longitudinal analysis; Home country; Innovation; Resource use; Emissions |
| Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
| Document Type |
Other |
| Open Access |
Open Access |
| Source |
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED); Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) |
| EID |
WOS:000792468700013 |
| WoS Category |
Ecology; Economics; Environmental Sciences; Environmental Studies |
| Research Area |
Environmental Sciences & Ecology; Business & Economics |
| PDF |
https://digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/10481/89907/1/ecological%20economics.pdf
|