Towards Achieving Sustainable Development in China: What Role Does Digital Technologies and Green Technologies Play?

Abstract

There is always discussion about how to use digitalization to promote sustainable development. While one side vehemently defends using ICT to direct and carry out sustainable development, another strongly struggles to highlight its many drawbacks. Similarly, green technologies are also under the limelight for promoting sustainable development since these technologies combine economic growth and environmental conservation. The purpose of the study is to empirically estimate the effect of digital technologies and green technologies in sustainable development in China. Time series data spanning over 1995-2021 period is analyzed using recently introduced Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (QARDL). The findings of the study suggest that there exists positive association between digital technologies and sustainable development over (0.05-0.80) quantiles. The significant and positive association exists between green technologies and sustainable development at all quantiles (0.05-0.95). The study also finds positive and negative association of economic growth and urbanization respectively with sustainable development. The study results emphasize the limitations of conclusion of past studies and provide significant contributions by confirming that the associations among variables is quantile-dependent. The Wald test results also disprove the parameter constancy for the Chinese economy and the findings of Quantile Granger Causality prove the presence of bidirectional causal association between digital technologies, green technologies and sustainable development. The study recommends Chinese policy makers and government to adopt relevant policies to promote sustainable development by effectively utilizing digital and green technologies.