Assessing the impact of the national revitalization plan for old revolutionary base areas on green development

Achieving green development in Old Revolutionary Base Areas (ORBAs) is an urgent task to narrow the regional gap and promote high-quality development. Starting from the dual perspective of development and environment, this paper used the Multi-period DID model to assess the impacts of the National Revitalization Plan (NRP) for ORBAs on economic growth and environmental quality, as well as its transmission mechanism, and to explore whether the implementation of the plan can promote the covered areas to achieve green development. The results find that the implementation of NRP boosts the ORBAs to achieve green development. The NRP realize green development through industrial restructuring, technological progress, ecological space governance, and public service provision. The ORBAs of Jiangxi-Fujian- Guangdong, Left-Right River, and Sichuan-Shaanxi, counties situated in mountainous terrain and with higher quartile of economy and environment play a more prominent role in promoting green development. This study provides practical inspiration and theoretical reference for ORBAs to realize green development.