Has the Establishment of High-Tech Zones Improved Urban Economic Resilience? Evidence from Prefecture-Level Cities in China

The establishment of high-tech zones in China represents a significant policy tool aimed at fostering urban scientific and technological innovation while ensuring steady and sustainable economic growth. Using high-tech zones as a quasi-natural experiment and 233 prefecture-level cities in China from 1990 to 2021 as a research sample, this article constructs a difference-in-difference model to test the impact of high-tech zones on urban economic resilience. Our findings reveal several key insights. First, high-tech zones play a crucial role in enhancing urban economic resilience, which is robust across multiple tests. Second, there is significant variation in the influence of high-tech zones on urban economic resilience. Large cities, cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YEB), and eastern cities are more affected than other cities. Third, improving urban innovation ability and optimizing resource allocation are important ways through which high-tech zones influence urban economic resilience. These findings contribute significantly to the evaluation of the high-tech zones policy and form empirical evidence of the policy arrangements’ regional-level impact on economic resilience.