CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE POLICIES AND THE HIGH-QUALITY DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN ECONOMIES

Cross-border e-commerce has emerged as a pivotal force in China’s international trade growth. Since 2015, the Chinese government has implemented city-level pilot zones to foster cross-border e-commerce, followed by a 2017 policy shift emphasizing high-quality development centered on sustainability and innovation. Leveraging panel data from 280 prefecture-level cities (2010–2021), we employ a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) approach to evaluate the economic impact of these pilot zones on urban development. Complemented by qualitative policy analysis, the research further explores the underlying mechanisms driving these effects. The findings reveal that the pilot zones significantly enhance urban sustainability and innovation, with heterogeneous effects based on geographic location, industrial structure, city size, and cluster dynamics. Three key mechanisms are identified: digital infrastructure development, productive service agglomeration, and business environment optimization. These insights provide robust empirical support for refining cross-border e-commerce policies to maximize their economic benefits.