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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Does Innovative City Construction Promote
Digital Environmental Innovation? Evidence
from Chinese Invention Patents
1
School of Economics, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing, China
2
School of Marxism, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China
Submission date: 2024-06-17
Final revision date: 2024-08-12
Acceptance date: 2024-08-23
Online publication date: 2024-10-28
Publication date: 2025-11-04
Corresponding author
Xiang Xiao
School of Marxism, Central University of Finance and Economics, 39 South College Road, 100081, Beijing, China
School of Marxism, Central University of Finance and Economics, 39 South College Road, 100081, Beijing, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(6):6959-6977
KEYWORDS
innovative city construction (ICC)digital environment innovation (DEI)land resource allocationdigital agglomerationgovernment financial support
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Digital environmental innovationn (DEI) emphasizes the integration of digital technology into
environmental innovation processes that can drive sustainable development in the era of the digital
economy. In China, innovative city construction (ICC) aims to foster innovation through place-based
policies. This study examines how ICC impacts DEI under the framework of local government yardstick
competition. Based on a new specific measure of DEI and panel data from 292 cities in China from
2004 to 2020, this study investigated the impact and its underlying mechanism using the staggered
difference-in-difference method. We find compelling evidence that ICC significantly augments DEI.
Specifically, DEI would be up to 40% lower if the city did not have this special status. Mechanistic
analysis proves that ICC enhances DEI through three channels: alleviating the distortion of land
allocation, strengthening digital agglomeration, and enhancing government financial support for science
and technology. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that ICC has a larger impact on DEI in cities with
greater local autonomy, higher levels of marketization, and stricter environmental regulation. In
addition, ICC promotes DEI in neighboring regions, generating a significant "spillover effect." Finally,
ICC can effectively reduce environmental pollution through DEI.
CONFLICT OF 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.
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| eISSN: | 2083-5906 |
| ISSN: | 1230-1485 |
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