Does innovative city pilot policy promote urban green growth in China?An analysis of green total factor productivity,2005-2020

The innovative city pilot policy(ICPP)is an essential manifestation of China’s construction of an innovative and green-driven development country.We incorporated urban green total factor productivity(GTFP)growth into the evaluation of ICPP.Based on the panel data of 223 cities in China from 2005 to 2020,we used the difference-in-differences model to empirically assess the influence and mechanism of the ICPP on urban GTFP growth.The main results show that(i)The ICPP has maintained an effectively fluctuating promotion on urban GTFP growth,mainly manifested in the urban green technological progress improvement.(ii)The ICPP has urban heterogeneity in promoting GTFP growth in pilot cities,mainly affecting key cities such as provincial capitals.(iii)The interaction between the agglomeration of producer services and the ICPP inhibits GTFP growth in pilot cities.

Can the low-carbon city pilot policy promote the upgrading of high-carbon emitting enterprises? Evidence from China

As a crucial environmental reform system to realize“carbon peaking”and“carbon neutrality”,the pilot policy of low-carbon cities(LCCs)puts pressure and challenges on high-carbon emitting enterprises(HCEEs)while providing opportunities for these firms to take the path of independent transformation.Employing the data of Chinese listed enterprises from 2006 to 2016 and adopting a difference-in-differences(DID)model,we evaluated the impact of LCC construction on the upgrading of HCEEs and its mechanisms.The results indicate that LCC construction enhances the upgrading of HCEEs in the pilot cities.The conclusions remain stable after a series of robustness tests.The mechanism analysis reveals that LCC construction triggers the upgrading of HCEEs by promoting resource allocation efficiency,R&D investment,and green technology innovation.The heterogeneity results indicate that this positive effect is more pronounced for HCEEs in regions with more stringent environmental law enforcement.This study also observes that the upgrading impact is more promi‐nent for state-owned enterprises,enterprises with higher bargaining power,and enterprises whose managers have a long-term vision.The above results provide directions for upgrading HCEEs and replicable evidence for cities in developing economies to fulfill the win-win target of environmental protection and economic transfor‐mation.

Digital Economy,Entrepreneurship,and High-Quallty Economic Development:Empirical Evidence from Urban China

The paper discusses the effects of the digital economy on highquality urban development and its mechanism.Theoretically,the digital economy can empower high-quality development by boosting entrepreneurial vitality.Empirically,the paper measures the overall level of the digital economy and high-quality development of the 222 Chinese cities at and above the prefecture level during 2011-2016,depicts the entrepreneurial vitality of the cities with the microscopic data of the business registration information and makes quantitative analysis on this basis.The result shows:Digital economy has remarkably improved high-quality development and this conclusion still exists after the robustness test selecting historical data as the instrumental variables and the Broadband China pilot policy as the quasi experiment.The analysis of the mechanism of action indicates that encouraging public entrepreneurship is an important mechanism of the digital economy to release the dividend of highquality development.Finally,thanks to the threshold model and the spatial model,it is found that the positive effect of the digital economy has the characteristics of nonlinear increment and spatial spillover of the“marginal effects.”The research of the paper stimulates the reasons for high-quality development and the understanding of the effects,mechanisms and regional differences of high-quality development empowered by the digital economy.