智慧城市建设能够促进企业绿色技术创新的“量质齐升”吗?

Can the Construction of Smart Cities Promote the“Quantity and Quality Improvement”of Green Technological Innovations in Enterprises?

基于中国2007—2021年上市公司绿色专利申请数据,以智慧城市试点政策为准自然实验,运用多期DID模型探究智慧城市建设对企业绿色技术创新的影响效应及作用渠道。研究发现:智慧城市建设对企业绿色技术创新的“数量”和“质量”具有显著的提升作用,该结论经过平行趋势检验、多期PSM-DID、安慰剂检验等一系列稳健性检验后仍成立;从作用渠道看,智慧城市建设能够通过政府环保补助、缓解融资约束及高质量人才和高科技企业集聚促进企业绿色技术创新;进一步研究发现,该试点政策对国有企业、大规模企业、高科技企业的绿色技术创新促进作用更大。研究结论为智慧城市试点政策的评估提供了微观企业层面的经验证据,为绿色技术创新水平的提升提供了重要的政策启示。

Based on data for green patent applications of listed companies in China from 2007 to 2021,this paper uses the smart city pilot policy as a natural experiment.It employs a multi-point difference-in-differences(DID)model to explore the impact of smart city construction on enterprise green technological innovation and the channel for this effect.The study finds that smart city construction has a significant promotional effect on both the quantity and quality of green technological innovation.This result holds following a series of robustness tests,including parallel trend,multi-period propensity-score-matching DID,and placebo tests.As regards the effect channel,smart city construction can promote green technological innovation through environmental protection subsidies provided by the government,alleviating financing constraints,and gathering high-quality talent and high-tech enterprises.Further analysis shows that the pilot policy has a greater promotional effect on the green technological innovation of state-owned,large-scale,and high-tech enterprises.This paper provides empirical evidence at the micro-level for the evaluation of smart city pilot policies and has important policy implications for improving the level of green technological innovation.