Does the demonstration area policy promote the documentary services of public libraries?

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the national public cultural service system demonstration area policy on the documentary service capacity of public libraries, the differences in the effectiveness of the policy in different regions and the policy superimposition effect between the demonstration projects and the demonstration area policy. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts the difference-in-difference (DID) method, which approximates a natural experiment, to evaluate the impact of the policy by comparatively analyzing the changes in the documentary service capacity of public libraries of the experimental and control groups. Findings The study reveals that the demonstration area policy can enhance the documentary service capacity of public libraries. From the perspective of urban location, it is found that there are differences in the effectiveness of the demonstration area policy on cities in different regions. The impact on cities in the eastern region is significantly higher than that on cities in the central and western regions. From the perspective of policy superimposition, it is found the demonstration projects do not have a policy superimposition effect on the demonstration area policy. Originality/value The study adopts a two-way fixed-effects model for DID, in addition to traditional variables, adding the individual fixed-effect, the time fixed-effect and other control variables to reduce the estimated bias caused by the omitted variables and unobservable characteristics, as well as time trends. The findings will provide a reference for governmental decision-making.