A Study on the Role of Engineering Materials Innovation in Urban Infrastructure Development in Promoting Economic Growth

Accompanied by the high speed of infrastructure construction in China’s major cities, China’s construction industry has been growing rapidly, and the engineering materials industry in construction has begun to transform from weak to strong. The study constructs a systematic theoretical model of engineering materials innovation in the construction industry to realize a systematic understanding of the engineering materials innovation mechanism. Combined with the economic growth theory, the impact of engineering materials innovation on regional economic growth in major Chinese cities is explored by using the threshold regression model. Through the study, it is found that the current innovation of China’s engineering materials industry is mainly facing two major problems, namely the slowdown of industrial growth rate, and the reduction of fixed asset investment, while the diversification path of engineering materials technological innovation outputs is beginning to diverge, and the diversity and ubiquity indices are gradually increasing, but the growth rate is slowing down. Threshold regression shows that when engineering materials innovation every 1% growth, for regional economic growth (GDP) to promote the role of between 0.099% 0.112%. The research in this paper provides a new perspective and comprehensive explanation for the study of engineering materials innovation-driven economic development, enriches the theoretical study of regional economic growth, and also provides theoretical insights and practical guidance for the government’s policy making and enterprises’ innovation practice. © 2024 International Association for Housing Science. All rights reserved.