Xu Ye, Shi WeiWei
Harbin Sport University, Harbin, 150008, Heilongjiang, People's Republic of China.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 1;15(1):21930. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-07771-3.
Green transformation has become a central goal of China's development strategy in response to mounting environmental pressure and long-term growth needs. Improving green innovation efficiency (GIE) is essential to achieving this transformation while sustaining economic momentum. This study evaluates the impact of the Pilot Policy for Innovative Industrial Clusters on GIE across Chinese cities. Using panel data from 280 prefecture-level cities between 2007 and 2021, we apply difference-in-differences and spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) models to estimate policy effects, spatial spillovers, and transmission mechanisms. The results are as follows: (1) The pilot policy significantly improves GIE in the pilot cities, with robust results after various tests. (2) The policy enhances urban green innovation through four main channels: reducing energy consumption intensity, upgrading industrial structure, fostering green technological innovation, and accelerating digital infrastructure development. (3) In addition to its direct impact on pilot cities, the policy also boosts the GIE of neighboring cities via spatial spillover effects. (4) Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the policy's effect is more pronounced in central cities, non-resource cities, and cities with a strong environmental protection focus. This study contributes to the understanding of innovative industrial cluster policies in enhancing GIE and offers valuable policy insights for promoting urban green development.
面对日益增大的环境压力和长期增长需求，绿色转型已成为中国发展战略的核心目标。提高绿色创新效率（GIE）对于实现这一转型并保持经济增长势头至关重要。本研究评估了创新产业集群试点政策对中国各城市绿色创新效率的影响。利用2007年至2021年间280个地级市的面板数据，我们应用双重差分法和空间双重差分法（SDID）模型来估计政策效果、空间溢出效应和传导机制。结果如下：（1）试点政策显著提高了试点城市的绿色创新效率，经过各种检验后结果稳健。（2）该政策通过四个主要渠道提升城市绿色创新：降低能源消耗强度、升级产业结构、促进绿色技术创新以及加速数字基础设施发展。（3）除了对试点城市的直接影响外，该政策还通过空间溢出效应提高了邻近城市的绿色创新效率。（4）异质性分析表明，该政策在中心城市、非资源型城市和环境保护重点城市的效果更为显著。本研究有助于理解创新产业集群政策在提高绿色创新效率方面的作用，并为促进城市绿色发展提供了有价值的政策见解。
