The impact of innovation capability on green development in China's urban agglomerations

As the main form of new urbanization in China, the effect and mechanism of urban agglomerations' innovation capability on green development are still unclear. Based on the panel data from 197 prefecture-level cities across 19 urban agglomerations in China, we explore the impact of the innovation capability of urban agglomerations on green development from 2008 to 2021. It is found that the innovation capability of urban agglomerations can significantly improve the level of green development, and talent agglomeration and industrial structure upgrading can positively adjust the impact of the innovation ability of urban agglomerations on green development. Heterogeneity results reveal that the impact of innovation capacity on green development in urban agglomerations is different in regional distribution, policy orientation, innovation capacity intensity, and whether it is cross-provincial. Finally, this study suggests that differentiated policies should be adopted to optimize the role of urban agglomeration innovation capability in promoting green development.