学术预告 | 国金学术研讨会第318期
主讲人： 俞剑 教授
主讲题目：Digital Brains, Green Gains? Data Centers and Urban EnergyTransition in China
时 间：2026年5月6日（周叁）上午10:00
地 点：中山大学珠海校区海琴6号础426
主持人: 杨扬 副教授
主讲人介绍
俞剑，中央财经大学经济学院教授，SSCI期刊Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy共同主编。在《人民日报》《金融研究》以及Energy Economics, Energy Policy等国内外权威出版物和学术期刊发表论文近60篇，1篇入选经济学领域ESI前0.1%热点论文，6篇入选经济学领域ESI前1%高被引论文。主持国家自然科学基金面上项目、国家社科基金一般项目与青年项目等。撰写多份内参报告获得国家领导人和省部级领导批示和采纳。
讲座内容
Amid the global race toward carbon neutrality and digitalization, a critical debate persists: do data centers act as energy-intensive impediments or efficiency-enhancing catalysts for urban energy transition? To address the granularity limitations inherent in traditional proxies, we constructed a unique, hand-collected dataset of 2,371 data centers across China. We synthesized project-level data, including precise geolocations, functional types, and technical attributes, from official government and enterprises portals, ensuring reliability through rigorous multi-source cross-validation. This granular dataset enables us to provide novel evidence on the relationship between digital infrastructure and energy systems. Our findings indicate that data center operations, particularly National Supercomputing Centers (NSCs), promote urban energy transition in China. Mechanism analysis demonstrates that this effect is driven through fostering innovation ecosystems and enhancing green innovation performance. Moreover, this promoting effect is more pronounced in cities with stringent environmental regulations, advanced economic development, substantial manufacturing bases, higher shares of clean energy generation, and denser optical infrastructure. Spatial econometric analysis further confirms positive spillovers to neighboring regions. These results advocate for a differentiated policy approach that aligns digital infrastructure layout with local resource endowments to maximize the “Green Gains” of the “Digital Brains,” thereby fostering a symbiotic relationship between environmental sustainability and technological advancement.