China is now one of the innovative nations,and expediting technological innovation to spearhead the energy transition is essential for realizing carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals and for high-quality economic development.In this study,we first develop a theoretical framework to explain the relationship between innovative policy and energy efficiency.Then,we employ the staggered difference-in-differences method to identify the causal effect and mechanism of innovative policy on city-level energy efficiency based on an exogenous shock from the national innovative city pilot policy in China.We find that the innovative policy significantly improves energy efficiency in China.The result is quantitatively robust when considering the endogenous problems and heterogeneous treatment effects.Our heterogeneous analyses also indicate that the effect only exists in cities with improved innovation environments,high industrial specialization,abundant energy consumption,and strict environmental regulations.We conduct several mechanism tests and find that the innovative policy leads to energy efficiency gain by promoting green technology innovation,upgrading the industrial structure,agglomerating human capital,and mitigating resource misallocation.Our findings have significant reference values and practical implications for China to implement the innovation-driven development strategy to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals and accelerate the process of the Chinese path to modernization.
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