AI and robotics as drivers of China’s urban innovation

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Zhuoying You

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Few studies have examined the economic consequences of deploying artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in less-developed cities, where policies have often failed. To address this gap, we analyse a panel of 270 Chinese cities (2009–2019) using ordinary least squares (OLS), instrumental variable two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS) and quantile regression techniques. We find that AI and robotics significantly promote technological innovation in China, with especially pronounced implications for cities at or below the technological frontier. These technologies also enhance the returns to science and technology (S&T) investment. Its novelty lies in framing AI and robotics as policy substitutes and tools for narrowing innovation divides among Chinese cities.

Keywords: AI; robotics; technological innovation; Chinese cities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O33 R11 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2026-02-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ain, nep-sbm, nep-sea and nep-uep
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Published in Spatial Economic Analysis, 6, February, 2026. ISSN: 1742-1772

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