Does National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone Construction Help Improve Urban Green Total Factor Productivity? A Policy Assessment from China

Abstract

Taking the innovation policy pilot of the national independent innovation demonstration zone (NIIDZ) as a quasi-natural experiment, we select a set of data covering 283 cities in China from 2004 to 2016 to empirically test the impact and mechanism of NIIDZ on urban green total factor productivity (GTFP) by using a progressive difference-in-differences (DID) model. The research indicates that the NIIDZ policy pilot can effectively help promote the growth of urban GTFP; talent agglomeration and local fiscal expenditure on science and technology are important channels for the policy to promote urban GTFP. Various methods have proved the reliability of our research results. Further, affected by geographical location, resource endowment and population size, the pilot effects of the NIIDZ also demonstrate regional heterogeneity. Our study provides a useful supplement for innovation policy evaluation from both theoretical and empirical perspectives.

Impact of National Innovative City Policy on Enterprise Green Technology Innovation—Mediation Role of Innovation Environment and R&D Investment

“…When the patent categories were separated in columns (3) and ( 5), the positive effect of the innovative city policy on invention patents was stronger and statistically more significant than that on utility patents. These results are consistent with the literature [42,43]. The innovative city policy boosts both the quantity and quality of enterprise green innovation.…”

“…Figure 1 shows the difference in green technolo between the experimental and control groups over time. The x-axis repres t − 2 represents the 2 years before policy implementation, t represents th mentation year, and t + 1 represents the year after policy implementation and Li [42] and Yu et al [43], the period just before the implementation o year t − 1) was selected as the reference point. As shown in Figure 1, the c vals of the difference before policy implementation intersect with the hor 0, indicating no significant difference between the two groups.…”