How does the selection of National Development Zones affect urban green innovation?

The launch of the selection process for National Development Zones (NDZs)
marked a fundamental change in the construction of development zones,
making it an essential position for local authorities to implement
high-quality development. Based on the data of prefecture-level cities in
China from 2000 to 2018, this paper examines the impact and mechanism of
selecting NDZs on urban green innovation through a double-difference
spatial durbin model using the selection of NDZs as a “quasi-natural
experiment”. The study finds that the selection of NDZs can promote green
innovation in cities and has a significant window-radiating effect. The
heterogeneity test results show that the implementation of the selection
policy for development zones in non-old industrial cities, large and
medium-sized cities, cities with easy access to transportation, and cities
with high market orientation are more likely to promote urban green
innovation. At the same time, the higher the level of government
governance and the better the level of economic development of the
development zones, the more it helps to realize the effects of the
selection policy. The results of the mechanism test show that the
selection of NDZs has a positive impact on urban green innovation through
environmental regulation effects, resource allocation effects, and policy
amplification effects. Data on development zones are sourced from the
China Directory of Development Zones Audit and Announcement (2006) and the
China Directory of Development Zones Audit and Announcement (2018
Edition)(http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2018-03/03/content_5270330.htm); data on
patents are sourced from the China Intellectual Property Office
(https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/); Other city-level data from China City
Statistical Yearbook, China Regional Economic Statistical Yearbook, China
Statistical Yearbook
(https://data.cnki.net/Yearbook/Navi?type=type&code=A). Our data
is collated from the above sources using Python software.