Local and Neighboring Effects of China’s New Energy Demonstration City Policy on Inclusive Green Growth

Yalin Duan, Hsing Hung Chen and Yuting Deng ()
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Yalin Duan: The Institute for Sustainable Development, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau 999078, China
Hsing Hung Chen: The Institute for Sustainable Development, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau 999078, China
Yuting Deng: School of Economics, Guangzhou City University of Technology, Guangzhou 510800, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 14, 1-20

Abstract: Amid mounting global climate change, resource scarcity, and environmental pressures, regional economies are accelerating their transition towards green and inclusive growth models. This research examines how China’s New Energy Demonstration City (NEDC) policy influences inclusive green growth (IGG), including its underlying mechanisms. Harnessing policy interventions as quasi-natural experiments, we use 2006–2022 panel datasets of 284 Chinese cities to develop a spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) model for causal inference. The findings are as follows: (1) The NEDC policy significantly enhances IGG in pilot cities while generating positive spatial spillover effects on neighboring cities, exhibiting an inverted U-shaped pattern; (2) The policy effects demonstrate pronounced regional heterogeneity, with the strongest impact observed in western China; (3) Mechanism analysis confirms that green technology innovation serves as a critical pathway through which the NEDC policy drives IGG. These findings provide robust empirical evidence for designing scalable policy promotion mechanisms and refining innovation-driven governance frameworks.

Keywords: new energy demonstration city; inclusive green growth; spatial difference-in-differences; regional heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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