Can the innovation-driven development strategy help cultivate new quality productivity? An empirical test based on continuous difference-in-differences.

创新驱动发展战略能否助推新质生产力培育? —基于连续型双重差分的实证检验

Abstract

In the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change, relying on innovation driven has become the proper meaning and key way to cultivate new quality productivity. The article takes the promulgation of the Outline of the National Innovation Driven Development Strategy as a quasi-natural experiment, selects the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2010 to 2022, and adopts the continuous DID method to explore the impact effect and transmission mechanism of the National Innovation Driven Development Strategy on the cultivation of new quality productivity.The study finds that: (1) The implementation of the national innovation driven development strategy significantly boosts the cultivation of new quality productivity in regions, and this conclusion remains valid after a series of rigorous robustness tests; (2)The results of the mechanism test show that the national innovation driven development strategy mainly contributes to the cultivation of new quality productivity by promoting market development and information technology;(3) Expansion analyses show that there is an obvious unevenness in the boosting effect of the national innovation-driven development strategy on new quality productivity. Compared to the central and western regions and regions with lower human capital, the eastern region and regions with higher human capital can draw more benefits from strategic implementation. This paper theoretically extends the relevant research on the influencing factors of new quality productivity, and practically provides empirical guidance for the implementation of the innovation driven development strategy and the acceleration of the development of new quality productivity.