Climate-resilient city pilot and green economy: A study of local and peer effects

Under the dual pressures of rapid global climate change and the transition to a green economy, the policy effects of Climate-Resilient City Pilot (CRCP), launched in 2017, urgently require a systematic quantitative assessment. Based on this, this study utilizes panel data from 282 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2022 to construct a difference-in-differences (DID) model, analyzing the impact effects and pathways of the CRCP on green economic efficiency (GEE) from a "local-neighborhood" dual-dimensional perspective. The research findings reveal that: (1) CRCP significantly enhances the GEE of pilot cities and passes multiple robustness tests. (2) Mechanism analysis indicates that CRCP enhances the GEE of pilot cities through pre-event government climate governance, in-event infrastructure planning, and post-event economic system resilience. (3) CRCP also significantly improves the GEE of peer cities, with heterogeneous effects. (4) CRCP exerts a peer effect by enhancing government governance awareness and green innovation levels, with the strength of the effect depending on the number, quality, and provincial affiliation of adjacent pilot cities. This study innovatively reveals the peer effect transmission chain of "policy demonstration-governance imitation-innovation diffusion." It provides quantitative evidence for improving regional coordination mechanisms for climate adaptation policies and promoting urban green transformation under the "dual carbon" goals.