From fiscal decentralization to high-quality economic development: role of tax administration intensity

• Fiscal decentralization significantly enhances high-quality development, with stronger effects in regions characterized by advanced institutional frameworks and diverse economic structures. • Tax administration intensity demonstrates a robust moderating effect, amplifying the positive relationship between fiscal autonomy and developmental outcomes by 70.3 %. • Non-resource-based cities exhibit substantially stronger fiscal decentralization benefits (β =0.151) compared to resource-dependent regions, highlighting economic diversification's role. • Metropolitan areas show 6.03 times stronger positive effects from fiscal decentralization than peripheral cities, reflecting enhanced institutional capacity utilization. • Southern regions demonstrate significantly higher development gains from fiscal autonomy (β = 0.130) compared to central and northern regions, indicating institutional maturity's importance. This study examines how fiscal decentralization influences high-quality development in China, emphasizing tax administration's moderating role. Analyzing panel data from 279 prefecture-level cities (2007–2021), we employ fixed-effects estimation, instrumental variables, and propensity score matching to address endogeneity. Results reveal fiscal decentralization significantly enhances high-quality development, with tax administration intensity amplifying this relationship. Heterogeneity analyses along the Hu Huanyong Line, resource endowment, and urban hierarchy demonstrate that decentralization's impact varies notably across contexts, being more pronounced in southern regions, non-resource-based cities, and metropolitan areas. These findings advance theoretical understanding while providing practical insights for regional policy calibration.