Does innovative city pilot policy promote urban green growth in China? An analysis of green total factor productivity, 2005-2020

The innovative city pilot policy (ICPP) is an essential manifestation of China's construction of an innovative and green-driven development country. We incorporated urban green total factor productivity (GTFP) growth into the evaluation of ICPP. Based on the panel data of 223 cities in China from 2005 to 2020, we used the difference-in-differences model to empirically assess the influence and mechanism of the ICPP on urban GTFP growth. The main results show that (i) The ICPP has maintained an effectively fluctuating promotion on urban GTFP growth, mainly manifested in the urban green technological progress improvement. (ii) The ICPP has urban heterogeneity in promoting GTFP growth in pilot cities, mainly affecting key cities such as provincial capitals. (iii) The interaction between the agglomeration of producer services and the ICPP inhibits GTFP growth in pilot cities.