Impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on the green transformation and development of China's resource-based cities
Green technology innovation serves as a crucial support and driving force for realizing China's path to green modernization,and it also plays a significant role in promoting the green and low-carbon transformation and development of resource-based cities.This study used panel data from 110 resource-based cities in China from 2006 to 2021 and took the low-carbon city pilot policy as a quasi-natu-ral experiment.Based on the spatial progressive difference-in-differences model and from the spatial spillover perspective,the study ex-plored the impact of low-carbon city construction on the green technology innovation of resource-based cities and its spatio-temporal het-erogeneity.It also revealed the mechanisms of low-carbon city construction affecting the green technology innovation of resource-based cit-ies by combining the mediating effect model.The results found that:① The construction of low-carbon cities significantly promoted the green technology innovation of resource-based cities;the driving effect was stronger on the number of patent applications of the urban green utility model.This conclusion still held after a series of robustness tests.② The policy effect of low-carbon city construction had spa-tial'local-neighborhood'spillovers.The low-carbon governance of the city spilled over the'policy dividend'to the spatially adjacent cit-ies,which promoted the green technology innovation of these cities;the'policy dividend'mainly increased the number of green patent ap-plications and patent applications of the green utility model in the spatially adjacent cities.③ Spatio-temporal heterogeneity analysis found that the policy incentive effect of low-carbon city construction in resource-based cities was characterized by time lag;the policy in-centive effect began to strengthen gradually in the fifth year after the policy implementation.It also had the heterogeneity of urban develop-ment stages and initial levels of green innovation,which was more significant in mature cities,regenerative cities,and cities with high lev-els of green innovation;its spatial positive spillover effect was more significant in regenerative cities and cities with high-level green inno-vation.④ Mechanism test results indicated that the construction of low-carbon cities promoted green technology innovation in resource-based cities by promoting the transformation and upgrading of urban industrial structures and enhancing the degree of urban economic ag-glomeration.⑤ The results of further analysis found that low-carbon city pilot policies had a significant promotional effect with the gradual expansion of the scope of the policy pilot.This study broadens the research perspective on the green innovation effects of low-carbon city construction.It also provides empirical evidence and valuable insights for consolidating the achievements of low-carbon city pilot policies and promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of resource-based cities.
resource-based citiesgreen technology innovationlow-carbon city pilot policyspatial spillover effectspatial difference-in-differences model