Reshaping carbon reduction logic and enhancing urban carbon emission efficiency: the role of supply chain digitisation in China

This paper takes the Pilot Policy for Cities of Supply Chain Innovation and Application as a quasi-natural experiment. It uses the Difference-in-Differences model to examine the impact of Supply Chain Digitisation (SCD) on Urban Carbon Emission Efficiency (UCEE). We argue that SCD significantly improves UCEE. A series of robustness tests, including the parallel trend test and non-randomness test, also support this conclusion. Mechanism analysis highlights that industrial structure upgrading and green technology innovation are important channels through which SCD improves UCEE. Heterogeneity analysis finds that in cities with a higher level of digital infrastructure construction and a higher degree of emphasis on environmental governance, the promotion effect of SCD on UCEE is stronger. In contrast, when cities have higher natural resource endowments and higher economic growth targets, it is not conducive to unleashing the carbon emission reduction dividends of SCD.