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Journal of Resources and Ecology >

2025 , Vol. 16 >Issue 1: 81 - 92

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2025.01.008

Resource Economy

An Empirical Study on How the Development of Digital Economy Affects the Value Realization of Ecological Products

  • ZHU Ali , 1 ,
  • YAO Juan , 1, * ,
  • LI Qianna 1, 2 ,
  • LV Tianqi 3
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  • 1. College of Economics and Management, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi 830052, China
  • 2. College of Economics and Management, Neijiang Normal University, Neijiang, Sichuan 641100, China
  • 3. People’s Government of Liugong Town, Changji, Xinjiang 831101, China
*YAO Juan, E-mail:

ZHU Ali, E-mail:

Received date: 2024-05-09

  Accepted date: 2024-09-12

  Online published: 2025-01-21

Supported by

National Natural Science Foundation of China(41961046)

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Abstract

Empowering the value realization of ecological products with a digital economy is an important path for achieving the transformation of “two mountains” and the construction of ecological civilization. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2022, a fixed-effects model was used to empirically test the impact, heterogeneity and mechanism of the effects of the digital economy on the value realization of ecological products. This analysis revealed three key findings. (1) The digital economy has a significant driving effect on improving the ability to realize the value of ecological products, and this effect is still applicable in a variety of robustness tests such as shrinking the years, replacing explanatory variables, and endogeneity tests. (2) The rise of the digital economy affects the value realization of ecological products to different degrees in different regions, especially in the eastern region, while the effect in the central region is not obvious. (3) The analysis of mechanistic variables indicated that the digital economy has an impact on the value realization of ecological products through the development of green finance and government revenue. Therefore, the government should design differentiated and multi-level support policies for the realization of ecological product value according to the heterogeneity of natural resources, ecological potential and the levels of digital economy development in different regions, and it should strengthen the control of non-environmental protection behaviors of the enterprises. Enterprises should accelerate the digital transformation of the entire production, distribution, circulation and consumption chain of ecological products, and actively develop financial products and services that meet the characteristics and needs of ecological products.

Key words： digital economy; eco-products; capacity to realise the value of ecological products; impact mechanisms

Cite this article

ZHU Ali , YAO Juan , LI Qianna , LV Tianqi . An Empirical Study on How the Development of Digital Economy Affects the Value Realization of Ecological Products[J]. Journal of Resources and Ecology, 2025 , 16(1) : 81 -92 . DOI: 10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2025.01.008

1 Introduction

With the reality of tightening resource constraints, increasing environmental pollution and the gradual degradation of ecosystems, the construction of an ecological civilization has become a long-term strategy for the sustainable development of China. The realization of the value of ecological products, as a mechanism for the transformation of “green mountains” into “silver mountains”, has become an important step in the construction of ecological civilization. Seizing the high ground of digital economy development will become a new historical opportunity for the high-quality development of ecological civilization. China’s digital economy has entered a new period of more standardized development and universal sharing, becoming a “new engine” and “new power” to promote the construction of ecological civilization, and providing an effective solution to promote the full realization of ecological product value. However, realizing the value of ecological products still faces such practical obstacles as “difficult to measure, difficult to mortgage, difficult to trade, and difficult to realize”. Therefore, allowing the digital economy to play a role in the transformation of “green mountains” to “silver mountains”, and clarifying the force of the digital economy on driving the realization of ecological product value are key issues that need to be solved by the academic community. To address these issues, this study focuses on the mechanism by which the digital economy influences the ability to realize ecological product value, puts forward the theoretical framework of the digital economy’s influence on ecological product value realization, and explores its intrinsic relationship and mechanism, which is of great significance for improving the mechanism of ecological product value realization.
Ecological products refer to products and services produced under the joint action of natural ecosystems and human labor (Jin and Lu, 2021), including material eco-products, cultural eco-products and regulatory eco-products (Liao et al., 2021). In studying how to realize the massive value of ecological products, scholars have classified the paths of ecological product value realization into public ecological product realization, quasi-public ecological product realization and business ecological product realization from the perspective of consumption (Liu and Mou, 2020; Liao et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2021). Since the ecological product value realization strategy was put forward, various regions have actively put it into practice, and scholars have summarized the typical case practices, experiences and effectiveness of ecological product value realization in various regions. Those studies identified “eco-banking” (Zhang, 2020), “eco-tourism” (Zhou and Huang, 2021), “ecological compensation” (Sun and Peng, 2021) and other practice modes, and adopted the input-output model (Kong et al., 2022), entropy method (Lei et al., 2022) and comprehensive index method (Wang et al., 2023) to evaluate the effect of ecological product value realization in terms of the level of ecological product supply, the improvement of the trading environment, the improvement of people’s well-being, the effectiveness of ecological product protection, the effectiveness of the transformation of value, and other factors (Wang et al., 2023; Xie and Su, 2023). These efforts have provided quantifiable methods and bases for evaluating the realization of ecological product value.
As a key driving force for promoting ecological product value realization and accelerating the process of ecological civilization construction, the impacts of the digital economy on the ecological environment and green development have become a hot issue in academic research. Scholars have found that the development of the digital economy can effectively promote regional carbon emission reduction in the form of replacing traditional tangible elements by data elements (Sun and Wang, 2024; Wang et al., 2024), and its spillover effect also helps to reduce the carbon emission intensity of neighboring regions (Zha et al., 2022). At the same time, the digital economy is conducive to reducing environmental pollution emissions. The development of the digital economy improves resource utilization, eases resource constraints and limitations, significantly reduces pollutant emissions (Song, 2020), significantly improves the level of environmental governance, and improves environmental quality (Xie et al., 2017). On the other hand, some scholars point out that big data-enabled product development, production, exchange and consumption can promote the realization of the value of agroecological products (Kuang et al., 2023). The use of remote sensing, the Internet of Things, blockchain and other digital technologies can not only promote the realization of ecological product value (Yuan et al., 2023), but also enable the crypto-digital monetization of ecological assets, the formation of price formation mechanisms for different ecological products, the cost monitoring system and the price adjustment mechanism, and the improvement of the market trading mechanism (Liu et al., 2020). In the era of the digital economy, its development is an important factor in transforming the value of ecological products (Kong et al., 2022).
In summary, scholars have conducted many studies on ecological product value realization and, separately, on the impact of the digital economy on environmental governance and green development, which provide important support for subsequent research. The existing literature has empirically analyzed the impact of the digital economy on pollution and emission reduction and green development, while the relationship between the digital economy and ecological product value realization remains at the level of qualitative analysis and theoretical elaboration, with little quantitative empirical evidence, analysis and evaluation in the literature. In view of this knowledge gap, this study makes marginal contributions in two important aspects. First, the impact of the digital economy on the ability to realize the value of ecological products and its mechanism are investigated at the theoretical level. Second, the impact of the digital economy on the realization of ecological product value is examined, and the mechanism by which the digital economy improves the ecological product value realization is analyzed, in order to help fill in this knowledge gap.

2 Theoretical analysis and research hypotheses

2.1 Direct impact of the digital economy on ecological product value realization

The digital economy has a direct effect on the realization of the values of different types of ecological products through different pathways. The value realization of operational ecological products is generally led by the market, and key production factors such as the market data and digital technology which the digital economy relies on can promote the digital transformation of basic links of ecological products, such as “production-distribution-circulation-consumption” and others (Chen et al., 2023). The digital transformation of ecological products can optimize the allocation of factor resources, reduce the production cost of ecological products, increase the effective supply of ecological products (Chen et al., 2023), accelerate the development of eco-industrialization, and enhance the operational capacity for realizing ecological product value. Government-led purely public ecological product value realization mainly relies on the realization path of intergovernmental transfer payments and ecological compensation. The digital economy under Metcalfe’s law realizes the accounting, assessment and monitoring of ecological product value through big data algorithms and other digital technologies to provide data support that allows the governmental departments to make optimized decisions on ecological compensation, ecological protection and pollution control. This will help internalize the externalities of ecological product value and improve the input and organisational capacity for realizing ecological product value. The quasi-public ecological products that combine government and market paths achieve value reshaping mainly through property rights trading. The government makes use of the high permeability of information in the digital economy and the high degree of integration between industries to break down the barriers of natural resources rights. This clarifies the property rights of ecological resources through the platform of property rights trading, and it stimulates property rights trading among stakeholders under the action of the market, so as to enhance the organizational and operational capacities for ecological product value realization.
Based on the above analysis, hypothesis H1 is proposed: The development of the digital economy positively enhances the ability to realize the value of ecological products.

2.2 Mechanisms by which the digital economy affects the realization of ecological product value

Based on the existing literature, this study examines the mechanism by which the digital economy affects the realization of ecological product value from the perspectives of green financial development and government revenue.

2.2.1 Green finance development perspective

The digital economy promotes the development of digital finance with its functional attributes. On the one hand, digital technology is the core driving force of the digital economy, especially the use of big data and cloud computing, which can build an open and interconnected ecosystem, and set up an information platform throughout the upstream and downstream of green finance. This not only promotes the sharing of information and security, but also significantly improves the accuracy of matching the supply of and demand for capital, and reduces the risks caused by information asymmetry. This will expand the scale of investment and financing, and at the same time promote the deep integration of green finance with the industrial chain and value chain. On the other hand, digital technology accelerates the development of green financing by virtue of its “universality”. Technological innovation reduces the cost of data acquisition, popularizes financial knowledge and services, and enables groups lacking a professional financial background to enjoy financial services as well. On this basis, financial institutions can gather a wide range of social idle capital and high-quality financial resources, and effectively mobilize these resources to serve the real economy through the inclusive mechanism of the digital economy, which opens up a path for the sustainable growth of green finance (Chen and Shen, 2022).
The market-based operation of ecological product value realization cannot be separated from the participation of green finance. Ecological product value realization is a transformation process, such as ecological industrialization or natural resource property rights catalysis, which urgently needs sufficient capital input, and it needs to play the regulatory role of a market mechanism (Shen and Li, 2021). Based on the theory of ecological resource capitalization (Sun, 2023), green finance, through the implementation of green credit, green bonds and other means, guides the capital market funds to flow to the green industry, which provides funds and equity assets for the main business and development of ecological products (Huang et al., 2023). While the implementation cycle of ecological industry is long and the expected return is uncertain, according to the theory of capital markets, the capital market of ecological products can reduce the financing cost of ecological product projects through the development of green finance, increase the financing channels and scale of the ecological product market, and then develop financial products in line with the characteristics of ecological products, such as carbon trading and others. This will expand the pathway of ecological asset realization (Xu and Xue, 2023), and enhance the operational capacity of ecological products to achieve value and value realization.
Based on these considerations, hypothesis H2 is proposed: The digital economy can indirectly affect the ability to realize the value of ecological products by promoting the development of green finance.

2.2.2 Revenue perspective

The development of the digital economy can have an important impact on regional fiscal revenues. First, the application of digital information technology drives technological progress and resource optimization, and it promotes the upgrading of industrial structure. The structural transformation of traditional industries by digital information technology can drive the improvement of production efficiency and cultivate new industries, effectively boosting employment opportunities for residents, which in turn raises tax revenues such as personal income tax and consumption tax. It can also promote the development of new industries such as cross-border e-commerce and digital services, thereby opening new ways to increase revenue from the consumption tax on cross-border trade, which expands the revenue scale of local finances and enhances the overall effectiveness of fiscal revenue (Guo and Yang, 2024). Second, the digital economy can enhance the efficiency of tax collection and management and strengthen the ability to collect and manage taxes. The application of digital technology in tax collection and supervision realizes the real-time monitoring and analysis of tax data, promotes the intelligent standardization of tax collection, and significantly improves tax collection efficiency. Through big data analysis and artificial intelligence technology, the transparency and traceability of fiscal data are enhanced, risk warning and prevention can be carried out more effectively, and tax collection and management are fundamentally strengthened (Yang, 2024).
Fiscal revenue guides and guarantees the realization of ecological product value. On the one hand, the government increases its financial investment and support for ecological products by raising fiscal revenue, guides market-oriented subjects to enter the field of ecological compensation through policy support such as the authorization of operational and financial subsidies, realizes the internalization of the spillover value of natural resources and ecological environmental protection (Chen and Qin, 2022), and strengthens the research and development of eco-technology, ecological restoration and other projects by optimizing the structure of fiscal spending investment. This in turn enhances the input capacity of ecological product value realization. On the other hand, the enhancement of fiscal revenue can improve the government’s ecological decision-making governance and guarantee its effectiveness. The government directly invests in ecological protection projects through fiscal revenues, provides tax reduction and exemption incentives to green enterprises to promote the development of eco-industry and industrial ecological transformation, and ensures the strength and breadth of eco-compensation and other compensation standards through policies (Wang et al., 2019; Yu and Shi, 2023). This in turn improves the operational and organizational capacity of eco-product value realization and promotes the value realization of eco-products realization.
Based on the above analyses, hypothesis H3 is proposed: The digital economy indirectly affects the ability to realize the value of ecological products by enhancing government revenue.

3 Research design

3.1 Modelling

To deeply explore how the digital economy development level affects the value realization of ecological products, this study constructed the comprehensive index of ecological product value realization ability as the explanatory variable, and the development level of the digital economy as the core explanatory variable. Then relevant control variables were introduced to improve the accuracy of the model, and the resulting fixed-effects model is shown in equation (1):
$e{{s}_{it}}$=${{\alpha }_{0}}+{{\alpha }_{1}}di{{g}_{it}}$+${{\alpha }_{2}}{{X}_{it}}$+${{\mu }_{i}}$+${{\delta }_{t}}$+${{\varepsilon }_{it}}$
where i and t represent province and year, respectively; $e{{s}_{it}}$ is the ecological product value realization capacity of province i in year t;$di{{g}_{it}}$is the level of digital economy development;${{X}_{it}}$represents the set of control variables;$~{{\mu }_{i}}$ represents the province fixed effects;${{\delta }_{t}}$represents the time fixed effects; and${{\varepsilon }_{it}}$is the random perturbation term.
In addition, to explore the possible mechanisms by which In addition, to explore the possible mechanisms by which the digital economy affects the realization of ecological product value, after the baseline regression validation of the impact of the digital economy on the ecological product value realization, the two mechanism variables of green finance (GF) and fiscal revenue (Rev) were substituted into the model as the explained variables to be regressed sequentially. In addition, the significance of regression coefficients (such as${{\beta }_{1}}$and${{\gamma }_{1}}$) was used to determine whether the variable represented the mechanism of action of the digital economy affecting the ability to realize ecological product value. The specific model is shown in equations (2) and (3):
$G{{F}_{it}}$=${{\beta }_{0}}+{{\beta }_{1}}di{{g}_{it}}$+${{\beta }_{2}}{{X}_{it}}$+${{\mu }_{i}}$+${{\delta }_{t}}$+${{\varepsilon }_{it}}$
$Re{{v}_{it}}$=${{\gamma }_{0}}+{{\gamma }_{1}}di{{g}_{it}}$+${{\gamma }_{2}}{{X}_{it}}$+${{\mu }_{i}}$+${{\delta }_{t}}$+${{\varepsilon }_{it}}$
where, GF is green finance and Rev is fiscal revenue; β, γ are regression coefficients.

3.2 Selection of variables

3.2.1 Explained variable: Ability to realize the value of ecological products (es)

In this study, the explanatory variable was set as the ecological product value realization capacity, and 20 indicators were selected to construct a comprehensive evaluation index system for it from three dimensions, namely input capacity, operation capacity, and organizational capacity, drawing on the approach of Yu and Xiong (2023) (Table 1). Among them, ecological natural resources are the material basis for the realization of ecological product value, which is the essence of the value and function of ecological products, while the input capacity is the active measures taken by the provinces and regions to improve the supply capacity of natural resources. Operational capacity reflects the ability of ecological products to be transformed into benefits and values, and the industrial economic benefits are the direct value embodiment of ecological products. The 2018 National Environmental Protection Conference proposed that “we should accelerate the establishment of a sound ecological economic system with industrial ecologization and ecological industrialization as the main body”. Through ecological industrialization and industrial ecologization, we seek balance and mutual benefit between ecological construction and industrial development. Organizational capacity gives full play to the power of the government and society to provide institutional support and guarantee for the realization of ecological product value. To effectively avoid the bias caused by human factors, the entropy value method was used to measure the comprehensive index of ecological product value realization capacity.
Table 1 Construction of the evaluation index system for the ecological product value realization capacity
Primary
indicator		 Secondary
indicator		 Tertiary
indicator		 Quaternary indicator Methodology for calculating
indicators		 Nature of the indicator
Capacity to realize the value of ecological products Input capacity Ecological protection Forest cover (%) ‒ Positive‌‌
Area of nature reserves (10000 ha) ‒ Positive
Forest pest control rate (%) ‒ Positive
Pollution control Area of mines rehabilitated during the year (ha) ‒ Positive
Sewage treatment rate (%) ‒ Positive
Non-hazardous treatment rate of domestic waste (%) ‒ Positive
Operational capability Ecologization of industry Proportion of water-saving irrigated area to cultivated area Water-saving irrigated area/cultivated area Positive
Pesticide use per unit of arable land area (kg ha-1) Pesticide use/cultivated land area Negative
Fertilizer application per unit of arable area (kg ha-1) Fertilizer application/cultivated land area Negative
Energy consumption per unit of GDP Total energy consumption/gross regional product Negative
Water consumption per unit of GDP Total water consumption/GDP Negative
Ratio of COD discharges in wastewater (agricultural and industrial) to agricultural and industrial output value Discharge of COD in wastewater (agricultural and industrial) / agricultural and industrial output value Negative
Ratio of ammonia nitrogen discharges in wastewater (agricultural and industrial) to agricultural and industrial output value Discharge of ammonia nitrogen in wastewater (agricultural and industrial)/agricultural and industrial output value Negative
Ratio of sulphur dioxide emissions from industrial waste gases to industrial output value Sulphur dioxide emissions from industrial waste gases/industrial output value Negative
Ratio of industrial general solid waste generation to industrial output value Industrial general solid waste generation/industrial output value Negative
Eco-industrialization Agriculture, forestry, livestock and fisheries output as a share of GDP Agriculture, forestry and fisheries output/GDP Positive
Operating income of tourist attractions as a share of GDP Tourist attractions operating
income/GDP		 Positive
Passenger turnover to GDP ratio Passenger turnover/GDP Positive
Organizational capacity Organizational
system		 Total number of environmental protection agencies (number) ‒ Positive
Number of socio-environmental awareness-raising and educational activities carried out during the year (number) ‒ Positive

3.2.2 Core explanatory variable: Level of development of the digital economy (dig)

Referring to the method of Guo et al. (2020), the framework for measuring the level of inter-provincial digital economy development was constructed from the dimensions of digital infrastructure, digital industry development and digital inclusive finance, and the entropy method was used to measure the digital economy development index. The specific index system is shown in Table 2.
Table 2 Indicator system for the digital economy development level
Primary indicator Secondary indicator Tertiary indicator Indicator property
Digital economy
development level		 Digital infrastructure Number of domain names (10000) Positive
Number of ipv4 web sites (10000) Positive
Number of Internet broadband access ports (10000) Positive
Cell phone penetration rate ( per hundred people) Positive
Length of fiber-optic cable per unit area (km km-2) Positive
Digital industry development Number of informatization enterprises (number) Positive
Websites per 100 enterprises (number) Positive
Share of enterprises with e-commerce trading activities (%) Positive
E-commerce sales (billions of dollars) Positive
Revenue from software operations (billions of dollars) Positive
Digital inclusive finance Breadth of coverage index Positive
Depth of use index Positive
Digitization index Positive

3.2.3 Mechanism variables

The mechanism variables in this study include green finance (GF) and fiscal revenue (Rev). For this study, green finance refers to the green finance index of Liu and He (2021), and the entropy method was used to synthesize an indicator of the comprehensive level of green finance development. Fiscal revenue refers to the indicator selection of Gan and Lei (2022), and it is expressed by using the per capita general public budget revenue.

3.2.4 Control variables

In this study, the following eight variables were selected as the control variables of the model. For population (population), high population density areas are accompanied by denser urbanization and industrialization, which affects the degree of natural resource use and development. In this study, the logarithmic form of the ratio of the total population of a region to the area of the regional administrative division was used. For regional openness (open), a high level of openness of a region has a stronger attraction for talent, science and technology, which is conducive to the development of the ecological economy. This study adopted the ratio of total trade import and export amount to regional gross domestic product. For the degree of government intervention (government), the government's policies and interventions can affect the development of the digital economy and the process of realizing the value of ecological products. In this study, it is expressed by the ratio of government fiscal expenditure to regional GDP. For the transportation infrastructure level (traffic), a higher level of transportation infrastructure is conducive to the development and protection of resources, the development of ecotourism, etc., which affect ecological product value realization. This study used the road mileage and the total amount of freight transportation to measure it. For the level of financial development (finance), the financial system development level can affect the liquidity and availability of funds, which in turn affects the development, protection and marketization of ecological products. This study adopted the ratio of deposit and loan balances of financial institutions to the regional GDP at the end of the year for this variable. For the level of marketization (market), a high level of marketization in a region leads to a more perfect market mechanism, which helps to improve the market transparency and liquidity of ecological products, and it also promotes the trading and value realization of ecological products. In this study, the Fan Gang marketization index, named after Chinese economist Fan Gang, is used to measure the degree of marketization in a country or region, was chosen to characterize it. Green innovation (GI) can improve the production efficiency of ecological products through the introduction or improvement of environmentally friendly technologies. This study used the number of green patent applications to represent the level of green innovation. The level of economic development (gdp) affects regional investment, ecological concepts and other aspects, which have a certain impact on the transformation of ecological product value. In this study, it is expressed as per capita regional gross domestic product.

3.3 Data sources

Based on data availability, this study empirically analyzed the panel data of 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government in China (except for Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) from 2011 to 2022. The data were mainly obtained from the China Statistical Yearbook, China Environmental Statistical Yearbook, China Industrial Statistical Yearbook, and Statistical Yearbooks of each province and municipal area. To eliminate the interference of price factors, this study used 2011 as the base year, adjusted the relevant data with a price index deflator, and supplemented the missing data with interpolation. The descriptive statistics for each variable are shown in Table 3.
Table 3 Descriptive statistics of the variables
Categorization Variable Variable description Number of observations Average value Standard
deviation		 Minimum value Maximum value
Explained variable es Capacity to realize ecological product value 360 0.165 0.051 0.082 0.593
Core explanatory variables dig Level of development of the
digital economy		 360 0.145 0.117 0.017 0.712
Mechanism variables GF Green finance 360 0.767 0.078 0.62 0.974
Rev Revenue 360 8.652 0.558 7.475 10.349
Control variables population Population density 360 473.898 705.236 7.864 3925.87
open Regional openness 360 0.264 0.287 0.008 1.548
government Level of government intervention 360 0.247 0.102 0.11 0.643
traffic Level of transportation
infrastructure		 360 11.633 0.834 9.440 12.981
finance Level of financial development 360 1.505 0.445 0.665 2.774
market Level of marketization 360 8.150 1.946 3.359 12.864
GI Level of green innovation 360 35006.54 46437.3 204 242551
ln gdp Level of economic development 360 9.332 0.464 8.542 10.806

4 Empirical analysis

4.1 Baseline regression

After conducting the Hausman test and F test, this study adopted a fixed-effect regression model to deeply study the impact of the digital economy development level on the ability to realize the value of ecological products, and the regression results are shown in Table 4. Column (1) shows the control group without adding the control variables, and column (2) is the result of the fixed effect analysis after considering the control variables. The data in column (2) shows that the coefficient of the impact of the digital economy on the ability to realize the value of ecological products is positively correlated within a range of 1%, which means that the digital economy has a significant role in promoting the ability to realize the value of ecological products. Thus, hypothesis H1 is verified.
Table 4 Benchmark regression results
Variable (1) (2)
dig 0.122*** 0.158***
(5.525) (2.623)
population -1.522e-04
(-1.275)
open 0.030
(1.268)
government 0.175**
(2.325)
traffic 0.004
(0.389)
finance -0.016**
(-1.564)
market 0.009***
(3.267)
GI -2.300e-07*
(-1.857)
gdp 0.060**
(2.380)
Constant 0.148*** -0.492*
(42.638) (-1.922)
Sample size 360 360
R² 0.085 0.186
Province fixed effects Controlled Controlled
Time fixed effect Controlled Controlled

Note: ***, **, and * denote significance levels of 1%, 5% and 10%, respectively, with t-values in parentheses. The same notations are used in Table 6.

4.2 Robustness tests

4.2.1 Adjustment of sample period

This study firstly adopted the method of shortening the time span to conduct the robustness test. The range of years was shortened from 2011-2022 to 2015-2020 for the regression, so as to explore whether the relationship between the impact of the digital economy on the ability to realize the value of ecological products still showed a positive relationship. The results in columns (1) and (2) of Table 5 show that after shortening the years, the impact was still positive, indicating that it can pass the robustness test.
Table 5 Robustness test results
Variable 2015-2020 Substitution of explanatory variables Instrumental variable
(1) (2) (3) (4) (Phase I) dig (Phase II) es
dig 0.254*** 0.259*** 0.022*** 0.027*** 0.199***
(7.719) (4.808) (4.974) (3.615) (4.193)
L. dig 1.006***
(40.232)
Control variable Uncontrolled Controlled Uncontrolled Controlled Controlled Controlled
Province fixed effects Controlled Controlled Controlled Controlled Controlled Controlled
Time fixed effect Controlled Controlled Controlled Controlled Controlled Controlled
Constant 0.125*** -0.063 0.165*** -0.794*** 0.031 -0.449
(23.338) (-0.251) (126.582) (-3.146) (0.367) (-0.981)
Sample size 180 180 360 360 330 330
R² 0.286 0.382 0.070 0.136 0.990 0.828
Kleibergen-Paap rk LM 78.464
[0.0000]
Cragg-Donald Wald F 4068.795
{16.38}

Note: ***, **, and * denote 1%, 5%, and 10% significance levels, respectively, and t-values are in parentheses. [ ] values are P-values, and { } values are critical values at the 10% level for the Stock-Yogo weak identification test. The same notation is used in Table 7.

4.2.2 Substitution of explanatory variables

Referring to Zhao’s (2022) accounting method for the level of digital economic development, this study replaced the explanatory variables with the standardized level of digital economic development measured using principal component analysis, and then used this to test the robustness of the baseline regression results. Columns (3) and (4) in Table 5 show the results of the regression after replacing the explanatory variables, and the coefficient of the digital economic development level is still significantly positive at the 1% significance level, which indicates that this result is robust.

4.2.3 Endogeneity test

The endogeneity problem is mainly affected by measurement error, omitted variables and reverse causality. Our previous study reduced the endogeneity problem caused by measurement error and omitted variables. Considering that the digital economy and the ability to realize the value of ecological products may have reverse causality leading to endogeneity in the regression results, this study adopted the two-stage least squares method, and used the digital economy lagged by one period (L. dig) as an instrumental variable to carry out a fixed-effects regression. The instrumental variable test results in Table 5 show that after considering endogeneity, the impact of the digital economy on the ability to realize the value of ecological products passes the significance test at the 1% level, and this result is consistent with the conclusions of the previous study.

4.3 Heterogeneity analysis

Due to variability in the level of economic development, natural resource allocation and government policies in different regions, this study divided the research sample into three regions, namely, the east, the center and the west, in order to deeply explore the heterogeneous impact of the digital economy development level on the ability to realize the value of ecological products in different regions. The results in Table 6 show that the effect of digital economy development on promoting the ecological product value realization is most significant for the eastern region, followed by the western region, and no significant effect was seen in the central region. One possible explanation is that the eastern region has more rapid economic development more mature digital technology and application scenarios, and its ecological environment construction has achieved certain results. At the same time, the input capacity, operational capacity and organizational capacity of ecological product value realization do not exist in isolation, and synergy through the inter-regional resource sharing plays a bigger role in the eastern region, so the development of the digital economy can quickly respond to and promote the improvement of ecological product value realization capacity. The rich natural environment and ecological resources with development potential in the western region play a key role in promoting the development of characteristic industries and the tourism economy. Under the impetus of policies such as Western Development and Rural Revitalization, the “late-stage advantage” of the digital economy has gradually appeared, which effectively meets the core goal of green transformation and development, and in turn enhances this region’s ability to realize the value of ecological products. On the other hand, the industrial structure of the central region is relatively monotonous, with insufficient organization and operational capacity, which limits the promotional effect of the digital economy on the realization of ecological product value, so this region fails to fully realize the development potential of the digital economy.
Table 6 Heterogeneity analysis
Variable (1) Eastern (2) Central (3) Western
dig 0.090*** 0.277 0.342**
(2.659) (0.942) (2.039)
Control variable Controlled Controlled Controlled
Province fixed effects Controlled Controlled Controlled
Time fixed effect Controlled Controlled Controlled
Constant -0.204 -0.091 -0.716
(-0.642) (-0.134) (-1.150)
Sample size 132 96 132
R² 0.094 0.254 0.291

4.4 Analysis of the mechanisms

To dig deeper into the intrinsic mechanism of how the digital economy affects the ability to realize the value of ecological products, this study analyzed the two paths of green financial development and fiscal revenue.
Columns (1) and (2) in Table 7 show the empirical results of the digital economy affecting the development of green finance before and after the introduction of control variables. The results show that the digital economy positively affects the development of green finance within the level of 1% in both cases. Huang’s research results show that better development of green finance means a more stable ecological product trading market, more adequate input capital available for the ecological product market, and a stronger ability to realize ecological product value (Huang et al., 2023). This shows that the digital economy can promote the ecological product value realization through the driving effect of green finance on ecological product market transactions. Thus, hypothesis H2 is verified.
Table 7 Analysis of the mechanisms
Variable (1) Green finance (2) Fiscal revenues
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
dig 1.046*** 1.006*** 1.090*** 2.885*** 1.131*** 1.232***
(23.916) (10.495) (8.741) (22.235) (4.273) (4.495)
Control variable Uncontrolled Controlled Controlled Uncontrolled Controlled Controlled
Province fixed effects Controlled Controlled Controlled Controlled Controlled Controlled
Time fixed effect Controlled Controlled Controlled Controlled Controlled Controlled
Constant 0.615*** -0.248 0.129 8.232*** -5.602*** -5.104
(89.665) (-0.609) (0.206) (404.587) (-4.986) (-3.429)
Sample size 360 360 330 360 360 330
R² 0.635 0.791 0.754 0.600 0.802 0.974
Kleibergen-Paap rk LM 78.464
[0.0000]		 78.464
[0.0000]
Cragg-Donald Wald F 4068.795
{16.38}		 4068.795
{16.38}
Table 7 columns (4) and (5) show the empirical results of the digital economy affecting government revenue before and after the introduction of control variables. From the regression results, the dig coefficient is always significantly positive, which suggests that the development of the digital economy can contribute to the enhancement of government revenue. Zhao’s study proposed that an increase in government fiscal revenue can increase the investment in ecological product markets and ecological construction, play a more significant role in policy guidance (Zhao et al., 2022), formulate and implement incentives and policies, and further strengthen the regulation of ecological product market. All of these will enhance the input and organizational capacity of ecological product value realization. The data show that the digital economy can promote the enhancement of the ecological product value realization capacity through the formulation of incentive policies for the ecological product market through fiscal revenue as well as the input strength of environmental construction. Thus, hypothesis H3 is verified.
To overcome the possible endogeneity problem and to ensure the robustness of the mechanism analysis, this study further adopted the two-stage least squares method. The Kleibergen-Paap rk LM corresponds to a statistical value of 78.464 which passes the test at the 1% significance level, indicating that there is no under-identification problem. The Cragg-Donald Wald F corresponds to a statistical value of 4068.795, which is greater than the Stock-Yogo (16.38) critical value of 10%, so it indicates that there is no weak instrumental variable problem. Columns (3) and (6) of Table 7 show the regression results using explanatory variables lagged by one period as instrumental variables, and after considering the endogeneity problem, there is still a significant effect of the digital economy on the two mechanism variables of green financial development and fiscal revenue capacity, which indicates that the regression results of the mechanism analysis have good robustness.

5 Conclusions

At present, the digital economy has become an important force in China's economic development and ecological civilization construction, and it continues to accelerate globally. In the new era of the rapid development of ecological civilization construction, the strong penetration of the digital economy is an important tool for efficiently transforming “green mountains” to “silver mountains”. This study focused on the ability to enhance the value realization of ecological products, and based on the data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2022, it explored the facilitating effect of the digital economy on the realization of ecological product value, revealed the transmission mechanism by which the digital economy enhances the ability to realize ecological product value, provides empirical evidence for the further research in academic circles, and provides marginal theoretical support for the practical direction of ecological product value realization. This study found that: 1) The digital economy can significantly promote the enhancement of ecological product value realization capacity; 2) The heterogeneous effects of the digital economy on eco-product value realization in different regions are more pronounced in the eastern region; and 3) The digital economy can promote the realization of ecological product value through the driving effect of green finance on ecological product market transactions, as well as the formulation of ecological product market incentives and the investment of fiscal revenues in environmental construction.
Based on these findings, the following recommendations are made.
(1) Accelerate the digital transformation of all aspects of ecological product value realization. Natural resources contain a massive amount of value to be realized, so efforts should be made to (1) Continuously improve the construction of digital economic infrastructure; (2) Embed digital elements into the production, distribution, circulation and consumption of ecological product value realization; (3) Further improve the ecological product value accounting system and methodology; (4) Improve the accuracy of ecological product value accounting by introducing technologies and methods such as remote sensing technology, cloud computing, geographic information system, etc., so as to provide basic data for the realization of ecological product value; (5) Apply the “three businesses” new industry with some flexibility, using big data for brand building; (6) Accelerate the construction of ecological product trading platform application scenarios; and (7) Realize the precise marketing and consumption of ecological product value.
(2) Based on the heterogeneity of natural resources, ecological potential and the level of development of the digital economy in different regions, differentiated and multi-level support policies should be designed for the realization of ecological product value. Regions that are relatively rich in ecological resources and have a relatively high level of digital economy development should strengthen the role of ecological product market trading and promote ecological product market trading. Regions that are relatively poor in ecological resources and have a relatively high level of digital economy development should guide consumers to actively participate in the consumption of ecological products, increase consumer awareness of ecological products, and provide preferential policies for ecological product consumption to stimulate ecological product usage. For regions with relatively abundant ecological resources but a relatively low level of digital economy development, the government should strengthen its leading role, formulate rationalized ecological compensation standards, establish a perfect property rights trading market, encourage innovation in property rights trading, and effectively promote the realization of ecological product value.
(3) Strengthen the role of green finance and financial revenue channels. Financial institutions should innovate and develop financial products and services that meet the characteristics and needs of ecological products, such as ecological loans and carbon sink loans, to accelerate the transformation of ecological products into financial assets for market trading and to strengthen the role of green finance as a driving force. At the same time, the government should increase its support for green finance, formulate incentive policies to encourage financial institutions to reform and innovate, and strengthen its assessment and evaluation protocols to avoid insufficient motivation for financial institutions to participate in the realization of ecological product value. They should also increase the strength of corporate environmental taxes, effectively inhibit corporate non-environmental behavior while enhancing government revenue, and further promote industrial ecology.

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