The question of how urbanization affects the urban–rural equalization of basic public services (BPS) remains unexplored, although BPS equalization is an important means of achieving common prosperity. Based on the BPS supply and demand perspective, we examine the path mechanisms through which urbanization affects urban–rural BPS equalization. Based on panel data from Chinese prefectural cities from 2003 to 2020, a TOPSIS model, combined CRITIC-entropy weights and an information entropy function, are used to measure the level of urban–rural BPS equalization. Considering the spatial spillover effect of urbanization, a dynamic spatial Durbin model is constructed to empirically examine the impact of urbanization. The study found that, overall, the direct and indirect effects of urbanization on urban–rural BPS equalization are significantly positive, and urbanization is conducive to urban–rural BPS equalization improvement in cities and surrounding areas. The effect of urbanization on urban–rural BPS equalization significantly varies between different regions. The study concludes that the process of people-centred urbanization should be accelerated to optimize the spatial layout of BPS, promote high-quality economic development and achieve common prosperity.

Eco-efficiency is an important factor in assessing the quality of development, and high-tech industries are crucial for countries to forge green innovation paths. However, few studies have examined whether and how high-tech industrial agglomeration affects green innovation efficiency. To fill this gap, we measure the degree of high-tech industrial agglomeration and the level of specialized and diversified agglomeration using the location entropy index and agglomeration factor, and calculate green innovation efficiency using the super-SBM model with undesirable outputs. Based on Chinese provincial panel data from 2006 to 2020, a dynamic spatial Durbin model was constructed to explore the impact of high-tech industrial agglomeration and different agglomeration patterns on green innovation efficiency. Our study found that high-tech industrial agglomeration is a significant contributor to green innovation efficiency. There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between specialized agglomeration and green innovation efficiency, and diversified agglomeration contributes to green innovation efficiency. Given the regionally uneven nature of China’s economic development, there is some variation in the impact effects within different economic regions. We demonstrated the leading role of scientific high-tech industrial agglomeration patterns and appropriate levels of agglomeration in green innovation, providing theoretical guidance for the formulation of China’s high-quality development policies.

The transformation and upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry is supported by smart and green manufacturing, which have great potential to empower the nation’s green development. This study examines the impact of the Made in China 2025 industrial policy on urban green economic growth. This study applies the super-slacks-based measure model to measure cities’ green economic growth, using the double machine learning model, which overcomes the limitations of the linear setting of traditional causal inference models and maintains estimation accuracy under high-dimensional control variables, to conduct an empirical analysis based on panel data of 281 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2021. The results reveal that the Made in China 2025 strategy significantly drives urban green economic growth, and this finding holds after a series of robustness tests. A mechanism analysis indicates that the Made in China 2025 strategy promotes green economic growth through green technology progress, optimizing energy consumption structure, upgrading industrial structure, and strengthening environmental supervision. In addition, the policy has a stronger driving effect for cities with high manufacturing concentration, industrial intelligence, and digital finance development. This study provides valuable theoretical insights and policy implications for government planning to promote high-quality development through industrial policy.