Can science and technology finance enhance urban economic resilience? Evidence from China’s pilot policies

The enhancement of urban economic resilience is essential for achieving sustainable development. However, existing research has paid limited attention to the role of science and technology (sci-tech) finance, and its causal impact, underlying mechanisms, and spatial spillover effects remain underexplored. Drawing on panel data from 282 Chinese cities between 2004 and 2021, this paper takes the implementation of the sci-tech finance pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment to evaluate its impact on urban economic resilience. The empirical results show that the policy significantly enhances economic resilience, and the findings remain robust across a series of robustness checks. Mechanism analysis reveals that the policy promotes economic resilience primarily through four channels: improving financial development efficiency, facilitating industrial upgrading, and strengthening innovation capacity and entrepreneurial activity. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the policy has a more pronounced effect in eastern and central regions, non-resource-based cities, and cities with higher levels of human capital. Moreover, the spatial spillover analysis demonstrates that the policy not only benefits pilot cities but also contributes to resilience improvements in neighbouring cities. This study provides empirical evidence and policy insights for China and other countries seeking to enhance urban economic resilience through sci-tech finance.