The role of information and communication technology on green total factor energy efficiency: Does environmental regulation work?

China is gradually changing its pursuit of rapid economic growth into a pursuit of economic development quality. In this context, whether “cyberpower” and “digital China” strategies are truly conducive to China's sustainable development still needs to be further tested. This paper constructs China's provincial information and communication technology (ICT) comprehensive development level index from the four dimensions of penetration, coverage, information resources, and business and then innovatively undertakes a theoretical framework integrating ICT, environmental regulations, and green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE) for the analysis. Using panel data from China's 30 provincial administrative regions from 2006 to 2017, this study explores the direct impact, moderating effect, nonlinear relationship, and regional differences of ICT development on GTFEE. It is indicated that ICT development plays a positive role in promoting GTFEE and that this role is moderated by environmental regulations. The regression results of the dynamic threshold model indicate that diverse environmental regulation intensities lead to different influences of ICT development on GTFEE. Moreover, the impact of ICT development on GTFEE is heterogeneous among different regions. Specifically, the western region may gain more benefits from ICT development by virtue of the late-mover advantage.