Study on the Impact of the Healthy Cities Pilot Policy on Industrial Structure Upgrading: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from China

Abstract

The impact and working mechanism of the national Healthy Cities pilot policy on the upgrading of the industrial structure remain foggy. This study takes China’s first batch of Healthy Cities under the pilot policy in 2016 as a natural experiment and builds a DID model based on the panel data of 280 prefecture-level cities from 2012 to 2019 to explore the impact of the Healthy Cities pilot policy on the industrial structure, wherein the impact tests and regional heterogeneity analysis are carried out accordingly. It is found through the study that the Healthy Cities pilot policy significantly contributes to industrial structure upgrading, especially for cities in the eastern and central regions. Further research on the impact mechanism shows that the Healthy Cities pilot policy facilitates industrial structure upgrading through technological innovation and green total factor productivity. Supported by the research results, this study argues that it bears great significance on the sustainable development of China’s economy as well as the health and well-being of the people to continually carry out the Healthy Cities pilot work and fully explore the mediating mechanism of the multi-faceted pilot policy on the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, so as to promote the transformation of the health industry in different regions according to respective local conditions.