Cultivating green growth through innovative city pilot policies: Evidence from China

This study utilises panel data encompassing 282 prefectural-level cities in China spanning the years 2007 to 2019. Its primary objectives are to assess the direct and indirect consequences of the National Innovative City Pilot Policy (NICPP) on Green Total Factor Productivity (GTFP) through the application of the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Difference-in-Difference (DID) models. Subsequently, the research delves into whether NICPP can enhance the GTFP of cities by means of fiscal investments in science and technology, the degree of green innovations, and the level of financial development. Additionally, robustness tests and heterogeneity analyses are conducted to strengthen the validity of the findings. The results indicate that NICPP positively influences the GTFP of cities, primarily via these three mechanisms.