ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Cities
Sec. Cities in the Global South
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsc.2025.1652437
Does the Free Trade Zone Promote Green Technological Innovation? — Evidence from the Perspective of Industrial Agglomeration and Digital Economy in 285 Cities in China
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Food and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, China
- 2Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, Beijing, China
- 3Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study aims to clarify the intrinsic relationship among the establishment of FTZs, industrial agglomeration, the digital economy, and green technological innovation. This paper empirically examines the impact of the establishment of FTZs on regional GTI and its mechanisms, based on panel data from 285 cities between 2009 and 2022, using the DID method. The findings show that the establishment of FTZs significantly enhances the level of GTI in the cities where they are located, with the GTI index increasing by an average of 696.501 units. Regional analysis reveals that coastal FTZs have a significantly stronger positive effect on GTI than inland and border FTZs. Furthermore, the promotion of GTI by FTZs intensifies with rising per capita GDP. Mechanism analysis indicates that FTZs promote the development of green industries through industrial agglomeration and the digital economy, thereby further stimulating GTI. Based on these findings, this paper proposes four policy recommendations: 1) strengthen region-specific policies and develop strategies to support GTI tailored to regional characteristics; 2) promote industrial transformation and upgrading, encouraging the green transformation of traditional industries; 3) improve the policy support system and optimize incentives for GTI; 4) enhance the greening of the financial system to increase the marketization and internationalization of green financial products.
Keywords: Free Trade Zone, Green technological innovation, mediation effect, Mechanism testing, Difference-in-differences
Received: 27 Jun 2025; Accepted: 30 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ren, Jia, Ge and Qunhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Binyu Ren, binyu.ren@cqu-edu.cn
Hongling Ge, hongling.ge@cqu-edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.