It is of great theoretical and practical significance to investigate the influence of intelligent city construction on urban innovation. Based on the data of 238 cities in China from 2006 to 2019, this paper utilizes the staggered difference-in-differences (staggered DID) model and the mediating effect model to examine the impact and mechanisms of smart city construction on urban innovation. We find that China’s smart city pilot policies significantly promote urban innovation. Mechanism analysis shows that this innovation promotion effect acts through improving urban informatization, government financial expenditure on science and technology, and the upgrading of the city’s industrial structure. Further analysis shows that smart city construction has a stronger promoting effect on innovation in cities of a larger scale, that located in the eastern region, and have a lower level of science and education. Overall, our findings provide new insights into urban innovation and objectively assess the impact of smart city construction in China.

Digital infrastructure serves as a cornerstone of urban digital transformation and smart city development, yet its implications for local fiscal systems and micro-level enterprises remain underexplored. This study empirically investigates the impact of digital infrastructure policies on the financing constraints of Non-SOEs in China. The contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) Theoretical innovation: It develops a comprehensive theoretical framework connecting macro-level digital policies, regional fiscal dynamics, and micro-enterprise financing constraints, offering a novel perspective on how macro policies influence micro-enterprises. (2) Systemic analysis: It enhances understanding of the systemic effects of digital infrastructure policies by demonstrating their ability to alleviate financing constraints through mitigating fiscal burdens, improving budgetary revenue quality, and strengthening regional financial development. Analysis of heterogeneity reveals that digital infrastructure policies implemented by Chinese provincial governments are particularly effective. (3) Practical insights: It offers practical guidance for policymakers to design targeted strategies that reduce financing constraints and support private sector growth in the digital economy. Non-SOEs in the growth and decline periods benefit more from digital infrastructure due to higher financing demands. Non-SOEs independent of SOEs in the supply chain are more responsive to digital infrastructure, effectively alleviating financing constraints. Moreover, the construction of digital infrastructure is highly conducive to the attraction of Non-SOEs and does not result in the vertical imbalances in local fiscals that are associated with traditional infrastructure construction. This evidence offers valuable guidance for local governments to optimize digital transformation policies and foster private economy growth.

This study constructs comprehensive panel data based on the China City Statistical Yearbook and environmental indicators disclosed by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment from 2013 to 2017, using a difference-in-difference (DID) model to empirically validate the effects of the ecological environmental damage compensation system on urban air quality, followed by a further analysis of the system’s effect mechanism, namely, how the system has generated effects on reducing environmental pollution. This study finds that: (1) the ecological environmental damage compensation system can significantly improve urban air quality, and small cities are more sensitive to the pilot policy; and (2) the main impact is that the pilot policy mechanism improved the urban pollutant treatment capacity and reduced the proportion of the secondary industry. After multiple robustness tests, this conclusion still holds. This study provides empirical evidence for fully implementing an ecological environmental damage compensation system.

Using a sample of China-A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2017, we examine the impact of the independent director-executives faultlines on executive corruption. The results suggest that the independent director-executives faultlines have a “double-edged sword” effect; it significantly inhibits the possibility of executives explicit corruption but aggravates executives implicit corruption. Further tests show that independent directors with legal backgrounds and academic experience have a more obvious inhibitory effect on explicit corruption. The non-local independent directors play a catalytic impact on the faultlines, and the power constraint of executives forms a superimposition effect with the faultlines, which all strengthen the faultlines inhibition effect on explicit corruption and the aggravation effect on implicit corruption. The research of this study shows the governance of independent directors under a “ties-oriented” culture in China and plays a specific enlightening role in the reconstruction of the ecology of independent directors.