Effects of National New District on economic development and air pollution in China: empirical evidence from 69 large and medium-sized cities.

This study attempts to investigate the effect of the establishment of National New District (NND) on economic development and air pollution in China. For this purpose, this study adopts the difference-in-differences (DID) model, the propensity-score-matched difference-in-differences (PSM-DID) model, and the spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) model, using a panel data set of 69 large and medium-sized cities during the period of 2003-2018. The results show that NND promotes economic development but fails to reduce the emission of air pollution including per capita SO2 and per capita smoke without the consideration of spatial spillover effect. However, the promotion effect of NND on economic development is not supported after PSM matching. On the other hand, the advantage of the SDID model in policy evaluation is proved. For instance, with the consideration of spatial spillover effect, the win-win of promoting economic development and reducing air pollution are partially supported. Based on the above empirical findings, several policy implementations and research prospects are outlined.