Does the transformation of energy structure promote green technological innovation? A quasi–natural experiment based on new energy demonstration city construction

Abstract

New energy development is essential to achieving carbon peaks and neutrality and promoting green technological innovation. Identifying the causal relationship between new energy demonstration city construction and green technological innovation is crucial for the expansion and promotion of new energy demonstration cities. In this study, we take the construction of new energy demonstration cities as a quasi-natural experiment, study their impact on green technological innovation using difference-in-difference (DID), and conduct a robustness test using DID after propensity score matching (PSM-DID). The research results indicate the following: First, energy structure optimization can significantly improve the level of urban green technological innovation (this result was shown to be valid using PSM–DID and other tests involving the effects of placebo and instrumental variables). Second, new energy demonstration city construction mainly improves the level of urban green technological innovation through technology research and development, the improvement of the industrial innovation environment, and the promotion of environmental performance. Third, the impact of energy structure optimization on green technological innovation has regional, financial, and economic development heterogeneity. Finally, new energy demonstration city policy affects the flow of capital, labor, technology, and other production factors to pilot areas according to new energy demonstration city policy, forming a “siphon effect”. The carbon reduction effect of new energy demonstration city construction is greater than its pollution reduction effect. Given the results of the study, policy recommendations to promote the expansion of new energy demonstration cities are proposed.

Keywords

New energy demonstration city / Green technological innovation / Theoretical mechanism / Difference-in-difference

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Chuanming Liu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Writing – original draft. Chang Tang: Resources, Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Yiding Liu: Software, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Social Science Fund of China (22CJL004). The usual disclaimer applies.

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