Open Government Data and Urban Air Quality: Evidence from the Staggered Rollout of Provincial and City Platforms in China

This paper examines whether Open Government Data (OGD) can improve urban air quality in China. Using the staggered rollout of city-level OGD platforms as a quasi-natural experiment, it estimates the effect of platform launches on annual average PM 2.5 concentration at the prefecture-city level. The results show that OGD significantly reduces PM 2.5 concentration. This finding remains robust after replacing the dependent variable, conducting event-study tests, applying the Goodman–Bacon decomposition, using a heterogeneity-robust estimator, and carrying out a placebo test. The analysis also shows that controlling for the prior influence of provincial platforms is important, because ignoring this factor may lead to an underestimation of the city-level policy effect. Further analysis suggests that OGD may improve air quality by promoting green innovation, strengthening the government’s orientation toward high-quality development, and increasing public environmental attention. The effect is stronger in cities with better digital infrastructure and stronger government governance capacity, and is generally more pronounced in major urban agglomerations. Overall, the findings suggest that OGD is not only a tool for information disclosure, but also a policy instrument with broader value for environmental governance.