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Carbon emission reduction is crucial for mitigating global climate change, and green fiscal policies, through providing economic incentives and reallocating resources, are key means to achieve carbon reduction targets. This paper uses data covering 248 cities from 2003 to 2019 and applies a multi-period difference-in-differences model (DID) to thoroughly assess the impact of energy conservation and emission reduction ( ECER ) fiscal policies on enhancing carbon emission ( CE 1 ) reduction and carbon efficiency ( CE 2 ). It further analyzes the mediating role of Green Innovation ( GI ), exploring how it strengthens the impact of ECER policies. We find that: (1) ECER policies significantly promote the improvement of carbon reduction and CE 2 , a conclusion that remains robust after excluding the impacts of concurrent policy influences, sample selection biases, outliers, and other random factors. (2) ECER policies enhance CE 1 reduction and CE 2 in pilot cities by promoting green innovation, and this conclusion is confirmed by Sobel Z tests. (3) The effects of ECER policies on CE 1 reduction and the improvement of CE 2 are more pronounced in higher-level cities, the eastern regions and non-resource cities. This research provides policy makers with suggestions, highlighting that incentivizing green innovation through green fiscal policies is an effective path to achieving carbon reduction goals.

The establishment of Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Counties not only enhances the quality and safety standards of agricultural products, effectively ensuring food safety and consumption security, but also holds significant implications for accelerating the transformation of agricultural development patterns and advancing modern agriculture. Based on panel data from 1,609 Chinese counties from 2010 to 2023, this study employs the national pilot policy for Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Counties as a quasi-natural experiment and utilizes a multi-period difference-in-differences approach to examine the impact of establishing these counties on agricultural economic growth and its underlying mechanisms. The findings reveal that: (1) the pilot policy significantly promotes county-level agricultural economic growth, a conclusion that remains robust after a series of robustness checks; (2) heterogeneity analysis indicates the policy’s effects are more pronounced in central and eastern regions, major grain-producing areas, and regions with higher levels of economic development, digital infrastructure, and transportation facilities; (3) mechanism analysis demonstrates that the policy facilitates agricultural economic development by promoting expanded operational scale and the development of geographical indications. This study provides theoretical support and policy references for further expanding the Agricultural Product Quality and Safety County initiative and for government agencies to formulate development policies tailored to local conditions.

The adjustment of administrative division is one of the powerful tools used to promote urbanization by the Chinese government in recent decades, and there is little literature to discuss whether the government-led expansion of urban space through city-county mergers can bring about a decline in urban energy intensity. With the multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) method and comprehensive urban datasets, this research investigates the urban energy intensity results of the city-county mergers policy experiment in China from 2000 to 2017. We present evidence that city-county mergers are indeed beneficial in reducing urban energy intensity, and that the energy-saving effect of the policy only starts to become significant in the third year after implementation. We also further adopt a series of robustness tests, such as the counterfactual test, placebo tests and PSM-DID tests to find if this effect still exists. The mechanism test with mediating effects indicates they are potential contributors to the positive effects of mergers with moderate fiscal centralization, population agglomeration and regional integration. We further explore positive effects of mergers, relying on the scientifically design official appraisal system and improve government efficiency.

Enhancing the ESG performance of manufacturing enterprises represents a critical pathway for promoting high-quality economic development and achieving sustainable development goals. Leveraging the establishment of National New-Generation Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Development Pilot Zones as a quasi-natural experiment, this study examined A-share listed manufacturing enterprises on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2010 to 2023, employing a multi-period difference-in-differences model to systematically evaluate the policy’s impact on enterprise ESG performance and its underlying mechanisms. The empirical results demonstrate that the Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Development Pilot Zone policy exerts a significant positive effect on manufacturing enterprises’ ESG performance, with the robustness of this conclusion validated through parallel trends tests, placebo tests, and multiple robustness checks. A mechanism analysis revealed that the policy primarily enhances manufacturing enterprises’ ESG performance through two transmission channels: intensifying the R&D expenditure intensity and strengthening environmental compliance pressures. Furthermore, the enterprise resource allocation and operational efficiencies significantly moderate the policy effect, amplifying the enabling effect of the policy on ESG performance. A heterogeneity analysis indicates that, from the perspectives of enterprise ownership and responsibility orientation, the policy demonstrates more pronounced enabling effects on non-state-owned enterprises and non-high-pollution enterprises; from the perspectives of technological endowment and factor structure, the policy effects are more evident among high-tech enterprises, non-capital-intensive enterprises, and non-labor-intensive enterprises. This study elucidates the multi-dimensional transmission mechanisms through which the Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Development Pilot Zone policy empowers ESG development in manufacturing enterprises, providing theoretical foundations and practical guidance for refining artificial intelligence policy frameworks and promoting manufacturing enterprise sustainable development. The research findings also contribute empirical evidence from emerging economies to comparative research on global AI governance.

The establishment of Pilot Free Trade Zones (PFTZs) is a key strategic measure in China’s new-era reform agenda, aimed at comprehensively advancing opening-up and fostering high-quality economic development. This paper aims to investigate whether and how the establishment of PFTZs promotes the development of new quality productive forces (NQPFs) in China. Taking the PFTZs policy as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper employs panel data from 270 prefecture-level cities spanning 2010 to 2022 and adopts a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model to identify the causal effects of PFTZs. The results show that establishing PFTZs significantly enhances the development of NQPFs. Heterogeneity analysis revealed that this promoting effect is more significant in cities with higher administrative status and in inland regions. Mechanism analyses reveal that PFTZs facilitate the development of NQPFs primarily by raising external economic openness and fostering industrial agglomeration. Furthermore, the positive impact of PFTZs is strengthened by higher levels of urban logistics development. This study offers theoretical and empirical evidence on how strengthening institutional development can facilitate high-quality and sustainable economic development.

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution poses a major threat to human physical and mental health. Smart cities (SCs) provide innovative paths for PM2.5 pollution prevention and control through Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring, intelligent transportation optimization, and other technological means. Based on the panel data of 2,141 counties in China between 2006 and 2021, this paper constructs a difference-in-differences with multiple time periods (MDID) to systematically assess the impact of SC on PM2.5 concentration and analyze its mechanism of action by combining the satellite remote sensing PM2.5 concentration (PM2.5C) and the list of smart city pilots. This study finds the following: (1) SC significantly reduced the PM2.5 concentration in the test area by about 3.58%. This conclusion was verified through rigorous robustness testing; (2) SC can effectively reduce PM2.5C through the innovation effect; (3) High-quality economic development can strengthen the emission reduction effect of SC on PM2.5C; (4) The environmental benefits of SC show significant spatial heterogeneity, with the largest PM2.5 reductions occurring in the western regions (4.3% reduction), followed by regions with mature digital infrastructure and cities in high administrative level cities. The results of this study provide a reference for the regional differentiated implementation of the “14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Innovative Smarter Cities”, and make targeted recommendations for the synergistic management of air quality under the “dual-carbon” goal.

Green and high-quality development is the focus of China’s urban development strategy in the new era. The city–county merger policy has been one of several powerful tools used by the Chinese government to promote urbanization in recent decades, but whether and how it influences the environment has been rarely discussed. Using the multi-period difference-in-differences method and urban panel datasets, we investigated the environmental effects of the city–county merger policy in China from 2000–2016 and obtained the following results. First, the city–county mergers significantly reduce the environmental pollution of merged cities. The robustness tests support this conclusion. Second, the effects of city–county mergers on environmental pollution control decrease with the increase in geographical distance between the merged cities and counties; the smaller the differences in economic strength of merged cities and counties, the better the coordinated control of environmental pollution; the environmental governance effects of merged cities in the eastern region are lower than those in the central and western regions. Third, by intensifying the vertical management of urban environmental protection agencies, unified urban planning and fiscal centralization, the city–county mergers can strengthen the overall environmental governance capabilities of merged cities, reduce the negative effects of urbanization, and ultimately improve the environmental quality.

Reducing agricultural emissions is vital for climate mitigation, yet evidence on green finance’s potential to facilitate agricultural decarbonization—particularly in China—remains scarce. Leveraging China’s Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Zones as a quasi-natural experiment, this study employs a staggered difference-in-differences design and complementary Callaway-Sant’Anna estimates. Using a balanced panel of 282 prefecture-level and above cities spanning 2012–2022—a window covering five pre-policy years before the initial 2017 pilot rollout and sufficient post-policy years to capture dynamic effects for the 2017, 2019, and 2022 cohorts—this study assesses the policy impact on agricultural carbon emission intensity. The findings reveal that the pilot policy reduces emission intensity by approximately 9.2% on average. This result is robust across event-study analyses, placebo tests, PSM-DID, policy interference checks, and alternative outcome specifications. Channel-consistent evidence suggests that the effect operates through three mechanisms: greener credit allocation, stronger green technological innovation, and lower-carbon adjustment of the agricultural production structure. The effect is larger in eastern China, major grain-producing regions, and cities with higher levels of financial development, and exhibits a strengthening trend over time. By analyzing China’s city-based pilot approach, this study demonstrates how financial policy can support agricultural decarbonization in settings characterized by dispersed emitters, imperfect environmental monitoring, and strong food-security constraints. The findings extend beyond China to inform other developing economies seeking non-price-based pathways to greener agriculture.

Integrated urban–rural development is an inevitable requirement of regional development. Developing green industries based on rural ecological resources are important approaches to promoting urban–rural integration. The National Key Ecological Function Zones (NKEFZ) policy focuses on safeguarding national ecological security. However, whether the resulting ecological improvements can, through the realization of ecological value, provide momentum for urban–rural integration remains unclear in existing research. This study uses a sample of 284 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2023, treating the establishment of NKEFZ as a quasi-natural experiment. First, the study constructs a “Driving-constraining” bidirectional theoretical framework, and then uses the entropy weight method to measure the level of urban–rural integration, which is selected by 18 sub-indicators from the populational, spatial, and economic dimensions. Finally, a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model is constructed to test the impact of NKEFZ on urban–rural integration, and the transmission mechanisms and heterogeneity are explored. The results indicate the following: (1) Following the implementation of the NKEFZ policy, it shows an overall inhibitory trend on urban–rural integration, consequently slowing the progress of urban–rural integration. The inhibitory effects are particularly pronounced in spatial and economic integration dimensions, and these results are robust. (2) Constrained industrial upgrading and increased fiscal pressure on local governments are the main mechanisms behind the slowed urban–rural integration. (3) Due to differences in policy coverage and the heterogeneous characteristics of city locations, the negative effects of the policy are more pronounced in cities with a high proportion of key ecological function counties, as well as in prefecture-level cities in central and western regions. Based on these findings, it is suggested to promote high-quality urban–rural integration in eco-priority areas through pathways such as developing ecological industries, improving the ecological compensation system, and clarifying central–local collaborative governance.

In the pursuit of high-quality economic development, addressing the challenge of high pollution and carbon emissions has become a critical issue. The rapid advancement of digital technology offers novel opportunities and tools to effectively mitigate these challenges. This study examines how digital technology empowerment can enhance the effectiveness of low-carbon city pilot (LCCP) policies in mitigating high pollution and carbon emissions, thereby improving green economic efficiency (GEE), using data from 283 Chinese cities between 2006 and 2021. The method adopted is a DID framework tailored for settings with staggered treatment adoption. Our analysis focuses on the low-carbon city pilot initiative, examining its consequences and how it interacts with digital technology. The results indicate that (1) the LCCP policy significantly promotes green economic efficiency; (2) digital technology empowerment demonstrates a substantial positive moderating impact upon the policy outcome, thus considerably reinforcing low-emission pilot policies’ improvement effect on GEE; (3) there are regional variations in the policy effectiveness, with the eastern region showing the most pronounced improvement, followed by the central region, while the western region exhibits a relatively lower response. This study provides theoretical and empirical support for further integrating digital technology with low-carbon policies and advancing urban green and high-quality development.