Research On Urban Green Innovation Capacity Based On Low-carbon City Pilot Policy

Against the backdrop of countries around the world attaching great importance to the development of green innovation in their regions,the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Notice on Piloting Low-Carbon Provinces,Regions and Cities in July 2010.Then three batches of low-carbon pilot cities were selected in 2010,2012 and2017,respectively.Since then,each pilot region has started to take actions to implement the decisions and deployments delivered by the central government.In order to better improve the green innovation capacity of Chinese cities,this paper conducts a study based on the impact effect of low-carbon city pilot policies on the green innovation capacity of pilot cities.First,combing the research on low-carbon city pilot policies and regional green innovation assessment methods in China,circumvents the endogeneity problem in exploring the effect of low-carbon city pilot policies on cities’ green innovation capacity by introducing a double difference model.Considering the time and sample fixed effects,a detailed and scientific screening of pilot and non-pilot samples nationwide is conducted.The relevant data of 130 municipal cities are selected and obtained as the empirical variables of the double-difference model;68 cities are selected for the experimental group,involving three batches of low-carbon city pilot regions in China.To further enhance the scientific and accuracy of the research process,62 regions of the same level with relatively balanced development which are not provincial pilot regions were are selected for the control group for the empirical analysis.Then by comparing the development history of green innovation in domestic cities with foreign countries and organizations possessing more advanced green development,mainly including the United States,Japan and the European Union countries,and relevant problems in the domestic governance process are identified and certain inspirations were acquired.The mechanism of the effectiveness of low-carbon city pilot policies is also analyzed.Taking into account the government leadership effect,the level of urban development,the standard of science and education,and the degree of openness to the outside world,therefore,the research hypothesis of this article is proposed.Further,based on the above preparatory work,this study employed correlation analysis,regression analysis and heterogeneity analysis on the sample data with the double difference model as the research method,and concludes that the pilot policies of low carbon cities have a significant effect on the development of green innovation in cities.At the same time,there is a certain heterogeneity in the effect of policies in different levels of regional development.Finally,based on the empirical results and comparative conclusions,policy recommendations for the improvement of green innovation in Chinese cities are proposed.