Can civilized city construction facilitate green total factor productivity? A quasi-natural experiment based on China’s pilot civilized city

This paper uses a double difference method to examine the impact of civilized city policies on urban green total factor productivity and its mechanism of action using Chinese city-level data from 2005 to 2021. The study finds that the civilized city policy promotes urban green development. The mechanism test finds that the civilized city policy achieves urban green development by strengthening government investment in environmental governance, optimizing industrial structure upgrading, and promoting urban innovation. The moderating mechanism finds that economic growth targets and environmental regulations influence the green growth effect of civilized city policy. Heterogeneity analysis found that the green growth effect of civilized cities has an asymmetric relationship in the east-central region, in areas with lower population density, and was more pronounced in cities with high human capital, high local government financial autonomy, and high levels of information technology.