The Impact of Low-Carbon Pilot Cities on the Development of Digital Economy: Empirical Evidence from 284 Cities in China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This study takes the pilot low-carbon city policy released by the 11 National Development and Reform Commission as a quasi-natural experiment. By matching the 12 panel data of 284 cities in China from 2007 to 2020, the paper studies the impact of the pilot low- 13 carbon city on the development of digital economy by using the method of difference-difference.
However, the article still needs to make the following changes:
1. The abstract and introduction of the article are not written in a way that attracts readers, and the quality of the abstract and introduction should be further improved
2.To strengthen the literature combing. At present, the part of literature combing is relatively lacking, mainly in two aspects: first, the quantity and breadth of literature combing is not enough; on the other hand, the shortage of existing literature and research gaps are not well summarized and refined.
3.The essay lacks the necessary citations, making many of the arguments lack corresponding support.
4.The article's explanation of the economic rationale regarding the empirical evidence is inadequate and lacks comparison with the findings of related articles, which needs to be further strengthened.
5.The article analyzes the heterogeneity of the samples, which in itself is very good. But the unfortunate thing is that the authors do not analyze in depth the deeper reasons for the heterogeneous results of different samples.
6.Additional need to expand the conclusion section at the end of the paper, which will analyze and discuss what is new, rather than simply stating the results, explaining the reasons behind them and what this means.
English language of the draft need to improve. It needs thorough proof editing from native.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The issue of the impact of the low-carbon city pilot on the development of digital economy is extremely topical. There is a great need for research in this area. Undoubtedly, the strong point of the article is the empirical part. The research was carried out on the basis of appropriate research methods. However, the text needs to be refined:
1. The abstract is too long (should not exceed 200 words). There is no description of the research method. The purpose of the research should also be clearly defined.
2. Introduction: the purpose of the research should be clearly defined, and the research gap should be indicated along with its authors/references; line 34-42 - source should be provided; lines 43-44 refer to 2020, so past tense (not "will be"); line 55-57 - specify what scholars and what conclusions; line 74-141 - this text is more suitable for a literature review than an introduction, such a section should be separated from the introduction and expanding it with references, because there are far too few references in the article; line 152 - if the study has already been completed, then "started" not "will start"
3. Theoretical Mechanisms and Research Hypotheses: no description in the text for Figure 1.
4. Section 4.2, lines 346-348 - should be moved to the description of the research method.
5. Results and Discussion – remove the word "discussion".
6. Discussion – in the discussion there should be references to the results of other researchers indicated in the previous sections of the article (preferably in a literature review).
Good luck!
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors attempt to investigate the impact of low-carbon city pilot on the development of digital economy. Although interesting may be, I fear that the article needs significantly more work before it could be published.
First, the paper is not sufficiently well-theory informed. The bibliography is too short, thus the authors should include more papers in elaborating the basic notions under investigation.
Second, given the scope of the journal, the authors should place the whole discussion under the notion of sustainable development and its association with knowledge (human capital). In this vein, a short discussion should be provided in the introduction and the following two articles should be included: (a) Manioudis, M. & Meramveliotakis, G. (2022) “Broad strokes towards a grand theory in the analysis of sustainable development: a return to the classical political economy”, New Political Economy, 27(5), pp. 866-878, (b) Dasgupta, P. The idea of sustainable development. Sustain Sci 2, 5–11 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-007-0024-y
Third, a conclusion section should be included.
Fourth, the authors should explain the reasons for not considering the reverse causation, i.e., how digital economy affects the development of low-carbon cities.
Moderate editing of English language.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
accept
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Thank you for considering my suggestions and responding to my comments. The article is interesting and will certainly enrich the journal scientifically. Best regards, Luiza Ossowska
Author Response
请参阅附件
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
the authors did not include all the references that I have recommended, i.e. Manioudis, M. & Meramveliotakis, G. (2022) “Broad strokes towards a grand theory in the analysis of sustainable development: a return to the classical political economy”, New Political Economy, 27(5), pp. 866-878,
minor editing
Author Response
Please refer to the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 3
Reviewer 3 Report
Now the paper has the quality for publication.
only minor editing
