The Impact of Internet Dependence on Household Carbon EmissionsThe Chain Intermediary Role of Income Gap and Consumption Upgrade

This paper utilizes the STIRPAT model and the Bootstrap intermediary model to empirically analyze the impact of Internet dependence on household carbon emissions and the chain mediation mechanism, using the 2016—2018 China Family Tracking Survey (CFPS) micro-database. The results show that Internet dependence has a significant positive impact on household carbon emissions. The income disparity and consumption upgrades have a significant direct intermediary role on the positive impact of Internet dependence on household carbon emissions. However, the intermediary effect of the chain of income disparity and consumption upgrade is specifically manifested as a masking effect, that is, the Internet dependence slows down consumption upgrades through the reduction of income disparity, thereby reducing carbon emissions. The results show that in the process of achieving the goal of carbon neutrality in the future, the government should coordinate the relationship between emission reduction and income disparity and consumption upgrading, promote differentiated emission reduction strategy, and advocate low-carbon consumption mode.