Digital Government Construction, Bidirectional Interaction Between Technological and Spiritual Civilization, and Achieving Dual Control of Sustainable Energy: Causal Inference Using Spatial DID and Dual Machine Learning

Xinle Zheng, Linrong Yu, Qi Liu, Rui Xu, Junyan Tang, Xinyuan Yu, Kun Lv

This study aims to elucidate the mechanisms through which digital government construction influences regional dual control of energy consumption (encompassing both the total volume and intensity of energy use), with a particular emphasis on exploring its indirect effects mediated by the synergistic advancement of technological and spiritual civilizations. Drawing on provincial panel data from China, we establish a nested framework that integrates spatial difference-in-differences models with double machine learning models to systematically dissect the transmission pathway linking digital government construction, the synergy between technological and spiritual civilizations, and the dual control of energy consumption. Our findings indicate the following: (1) Digital government construction significantly enhances the dual control of regional total energy consumption and energy intensity through policy coordination and optimized resource allocation. (2) While the progression of technological civilization plays a notable intermediary role in reducing energy intensity, its impact on total energy consumption is constrained by the “Jevons paradox”. (3) Advancements in spiritual civilization concurrently promote the alleviation of both total energy consumption and energy intensity by reshaping social consensus and behavioral norms. (4) The synergistic effects of technological and spiritual civilizations further amplify the efficacy of the dual control of energy consumption, although digital government construction exhibits a pronounced spatial polarization effect on energy intensity in neighboring regions. The theoretical contributions of this study are as follows: Firstly, it proposes the governance paradigm of digital government as a “technology–culture” collaborative hub, breaking through the binary opposition between technological determinism and institutional embeddedness. Secondly, it constructs a “feasible ability” expansion model to reveal the complementary mechanism between scientific and technological civilization (technology acquisition ability) and spiritual civilization (value selection ability). Thirdly, the policy black box is deconstructed through methodological innovation and provides a systematic path for emerging economies to solve the “efficiency–equity” dilemma of energy governance.