Impact of the Yangtze River economic belt on high-quality economic development in China: Evidence from a spatial difference-in-differences model

Yu He, Xiaoqi Zhang and Huan Zheng

Economic Modelling, 2025, vol. 143, issue C

Abstract: In September 2016, the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) was officially declared a major national strategic development region in China. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the impact of YREB implementation on environmental protection and economic growth, with limited research on sustainable economic development. Thus, based on city-level panel data during 2013–2020, this study examines the impact of YREB implementation on high-quality economic development (HQED) by using a spatial difference-in-differences model. Based on the findings, YREB implementation enhances the HQED of local regions, but not that of neighboring regions. Additionally, a mechanism analysis revealed that the policy effect is greater when the industrial structure is more advanced and human capital is richer. Meanwhile, YREB implementation only has a significant influence on HQED over the long term and in the eastern region. Overall, our study clarifies the role of YREB implementation in fostering sustainable economic development in the country.

Keywords: High-quality economic development; Yangtze River economic belt; Industrial structure; Moran's I index; Spatial difference-in-differences model; Threshold regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999324003195
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:143:y:2025:i:c:s0264999324003195

DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2024.106962

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Modelling is currently edited by S. Hall and P. Pauly

More articles in Economic Modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().