Impact of industrial structure upgrading on green innovation: evidence from Chinese cities

Industrial structure upgrading has a spatial spillover effect, which is an important way to accelerate urban green innovation and realize urban sustainable development. Therefore, it is very important to study the impact of industrial structure upgrading on urban green innovation. Using panel data of 260 prefecture-level and above cities in China from 2005 to 2019, this paper studies the spatial effect of industrial structure supererogation on green innovation by using the spatial Durbin model (SDM). The results show that both industrial structure upgrading and green innovation show a trend of regional agglomeration and fluctuation. The direct effect of an industrial structure supererogation on green innovation is significantly positive, while the indirect effect and total effect are significantly negative. The direct effect, indirect effect, and total effect of industrial structure rationalization on green innovation are significantly positive. This study can provide a useful reference for the coordinated development of industrial structure upgrading and green innovation.