The impact of the new energy demonstration city policy on the green total factor productivity of resource-based cities: empirical evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

The new energy demonstration city policy (NEDC), an essential economic system aiming to implement innovative development strategies and energy structure transformations in China, is crucial for solving the current plight of resource-based cities. This paper studies the effect of the implementation of the NEDC on the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of resource-based cities in China; understanding this relation is of great significance for the further promotion of the NEDC. For this purpose, the SBM-undesirable model is employed to measure GTFP. The propensity score matching and difference-in-difference (PSM-DID) model and the mediation effect model are also utilized to empirically examine the impact of the NEDC on GTFP across a dataset of 106 resource-based cities between 2005 and 2016. The empirical results indicate that the NEDC can significantly improve the GTFP of resource-based cities. After both counterfactual and common trend tests are performed, the research conclusion of this paper is still robust. Moreover, the NEDC promotes the GTFP of resource-based cities through structural effects, technological innovation effects, and fiscal support effects. Furthermore, the effect of the NEDC on GTFP is also affected by the regions, sizes, and types of the different resource-based cities. This research provides evidence for the ability of the NEDC to improve GTFP and optimize the spatial layout of new energy demonstration cities in resource-based cities.