TY - UNPB

T1 - Innovative Cities and City Sustainability

T2 - Evidence from 247 Cities in China

AU - Han, Haiting

AU - Liang, Feiyan

AU - Hougaard, Jens Leth

AU - Ge, Shidong

PY - 2022/11

Y1 - 2022/11

N2 - Since cities are the fundamental social production units of modern civilization and host almost all economic activities, appropriate urban development policies can not only maximize the economic benefits of land and reap great wealth, but also ensure the sustainability of economic output and the balance of regional ecosystems to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals advocated by the United Nations. This article presents a 'quasi-natural experiment' based on data from 270 Chinese cities from 2003-2019 to analyze the impact of China's Innovation Cities Pilot Policy in 2011 on regional productivity, ecological service capacity, and ecological space. The study provides a measure of City Sustainability by integrating factor inputs and economic outputs, ecological regulations, and spatial improvements in human settlements. The results show that Innovation Cities Pilot Policy has a significant impact on City Sustainability, which in general implies that innovative cities make an important contribution in promoting a frugal, green and sustainable society, and quantified its contribution rate to be about $2.8\%$. Innovation Cities Policy has the most significant impact on resource-based cities, central and western cities, and both show a suppressive effect, while in developed areas such as regional centre cities and eastern cities it shows a promotional effect. In East China it was a facilitation of $4.39\%$, while in Southwest China it was a suppression of $12.76\%$.We feel that it is helpful for the management and optimization of city sustainability, and it will provide scientific reference to explore the new sustainable development path.

AB - Since cities are the fundamental social production units of modern civilization and host almost all economic activities, appropriate urban development policies can not only maximize the economic benefits of land and reap great wealth, but also ensure the sustainability of economic output and the balance of regional ecosystems to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals advocated by the United Nations. This article presents a 'quasi-natural experiment' based on data from 270 Chinese cities from 2003-2019 to analyze the impact of China's Innovation Cities Pilot Policy in 2011 on regional productivity, ecological service capacity, and ecological space. The study provides a measure of City Sustainability by integrating factor inputs and economic outputs, ecological regulations, and spatial improvements in human settlements. The results show that Innovation Cities Pilot Policy has a significant impact on City Sustainability, which in general implies that innovative cities make an important contribution in promoting a frugal, green and sustainable society, and quantified its contribution rate to be about $2.8\%$. Innovation Cities Policy has the most significant impact on resource-based cities, central and western cities, and both show a suppressive effect, while in developed areas such as regional centre cities and eastern cities it shows a promotional effect. In East China it was a facilitation of $4.39\%$, while in Southwest China it was a suppression of $12.76\%$.We feel that it is helpful for the management and optimization of city sustainability, and it will provide scientific reference to explore the new sustainable development path.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Difference-in-Difference

KW - Slacks-Based Measure

KW - City Sustainability

KW - Innovation City Pilot

KW - Treatment Measurement

M3 - Preprint

BT - Innovative Cities and City Sustainability

ER -