Abstract With the approval of the State Council, the national new area is a comprehensive functional platform established to undertake the strategic tasks of national major development and reform and opening up, and its policy effect remains to be tested. Based on the panel data of 285 cities at prefecture level and above from 2002 to 2018, this paper takes the policy of establishing national new area as a quasi-natural experiment, and uses multi-time-point double difference method to identify the causal effect of the establishment of national new area on regional economic development. There results are listed as follows. (1) The establishment of national new areas is conducive to regional economic development, and its driving force has not weakened with the passage of time. (2) The policy effect of the state-level new areas established in the northeast and western regions is obviously better than that of the state-level new areas established in the eastern and central regions, and the policy effect of the state-level new areas established in inland areas is obviously better than that of the state-level new areas established in coastal areas. (3) No matter whether the national new area is established in “provincial capital or above cities” or “other cities”, it has a “siphon effect” on the surrounding cities, among which the “siphon effect” of the national new areas established in “other cities” is more significant. (4) The policy effect of establishing national new area across regions is better than that of establishing national new area by a single administrative subject. The above empirical research results provide an important basis for the future layout of national new areas and the implementation of related policies.
2022, Vol. 39 
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