Does the pilot program of healthcare big data centers promote the development of new quality productive forces in resource-based cities?

Finding a new economic growth model is looming, in order to replace the traditional economic growth model, on account of the both resource consumption and low-cost labor are no longer sustainable. In 2023, the Chinese government proposed a new concept of new quality productive forces (NQPF), which is aiming to promote industrial structure upgrading through technological innovation. Moreover, focusing on disruptive and cutting-edge technologies can create new industries, new models, and new drivers with the development of NQPF. In terms of resource-based cities (RBCs), developing NQPF is the only way to achieve economic structural transformation and promote high-quality economic development. This study uses a multi-period difference-in-differences model to analyze panel data from 2009 to 2022, taking the pilot cities of healthcare big data centers (HBDC) as samples, to explore the ways for RBCs to develop NQPF. The results indicate that the pilot program of HDBC significantly enhances the NQPF of RBCs, with improving urban innovation levels and urban low-carbon consumption transformation levels being effective approaches. This catalytic effect exhibits a greater driving role in coastal RBCs, and RBCs along the Yellow River basin. What's more, the results remain robust after various robustness tests and endogeneity tests. Based on this, the paper believes that the utility of the pilot program of HBDCs should be expanded to release data value and add strength to the transformation for the development of RBCs.