Does the development of the internet contribute to air pollution control in China? Mechanism discussion and empirical test.

• The index system of internet comprehensive development in China has been established. • The influence of China's internet development on environmental pollution is investigated. • Spatial correlation of haze pollution is fully considered. • The impact of internet development on China's environmental pollution shows an inverted "U" shaped. With the continuous development of cloud computing and internet of things technology, the integration of internet and haze governance has broad prospects and infinite potential. Through the internet platform and technology, environmental monitoring can be done by the internet, and realize the intellectualization of environmental management, improve the early warning ability of environmental pollution emergencies, and facilitate the public's in-depth participation in environmental supervision. The dynamic spatial Durbin model and the quantile regression model are employed to analyze the effect and mechanism of the internet development on China's haze pollution on the basis of provincial panel data in China from 2006 to 2017. The results indicate that there is an inverted "U" curve between internet development and haze pollution in China, and the conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests. There is significant heterogeneity between direct and indirect spillover effects. Meanwhile, from the perspective of different regions in China (such as the east-central region and western regions), the inverted "U" curve between internet development and air pollution still exists. Besides, quantile regression results also show that the suppression effect of the internet on haze pollution is getting stronger with the increase of haze concentration. The regression results of the mediation effect indicate that internet development mainly affects haze pollution by improving technological innovation and environmental governance efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]