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Abstract
With an innovation-led orientation, efficiency and
intensification, and high technology intensity, new quality productive forces
have become a key driver of urban economic resilience. Drawing on the
three-factor theory of productive forces, this paper constructs an evaluation
index system for new quality productive forces and, using panel data for 284
prefecture-level Chinese cities from 2012 to 2022, employs a two-way
fixed-effects model to empirically examine their impact on urban economic
resilience. Results show that new quality productive forces significantly
enhances urban economic resilience. The effect is heterogeneous - stronger in
cities with weaker science-and-technology foundations, east of the Hu Huanyong
Line, and in resource-based cities. Mechanism tests indicate three pathways: digital
technological innovation, industrial agglomeration, and optimization of
human-capital structure. Policy implications are threefold: (1) consolidate the
foundations for NQPF by improving industrial layout and institutions to raise
cities’ resistance and recovery capacity; (2) strengthen the human-capital
bridge through higher education investment, talent policies, and vocational
training; and (3) implement regionally differentiated strategies - the east
should prioritize innovation-led upgrading and cluster deepening, while the
west should accelerate transformation and close infrastructure gaps - supported
by stronger mechanisms for coordinated regional development.
JEL classification numbers: R11, R58.
Keywords: New Quality Productive Forces, Economic Resilience, Digital
Technology Innovation, Industrial Agglomeration, Human Capital Level.