Educational equity is the foundation of social equity, and education equalization is one of the serious issues to be solved by the government. This work considers one education equalization reform conducted by Suzhou Industrial Park of China, namely, the comprehensive "five to nine" (CFTN) housing purchase admission qualification adjustment policy, as an example and uses the resold housing transaction data to identify the effect of the equalization policy by the difference-in-differences (DID) method. Based on this natural experiment, the quantitative assessment results show that (1) the CFTN policy has a significantly positive effect on housing prices in nine-year consistent (NYC) school districts that belong to high-quality school districts; (2) the CFTN policy has no significant effect on housing prices in non-NYC consistent school districts that belong to ordinary school districts. These results uncover that the one-size-fits-all CFTN policy can only obtain significant housing price equilibrium effects in school districts above a certain level of education quality. For regions with backward education levels, the policy is ineffective. For these regions, continuously increasing high-quality educational resources and increasing educational service levels are essential solutions to reduce educational inequality.

Industrial policy is the government’s guidance and intervention in industrial development to achieve economic and social goals, and it seeks to steer the direction of industrial development, facilitate industrial structure upgrades, and improve social welfare. Based on panel data on 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2022, this study examines the effects of industrial promotion from China’s Five-Year Plans on corporate innovation performance using a difference-in-differences (DID) model. The study findings indicate that industrial promotion from China’s Five-Year Plans promotes corporate innovation performance, and the basic conclusion remains robust when changing how firms’ innovation is measured, removing provincial policy interference, excluding the four municipalities in China, and utilizing the PSM-DID model. Moreover, this paper explores how industrial promotion influences firms’ innovation performance. The mechanism analysis reveals that industrial promotion from China’s Five-Year Plans encourages firms’ innovation through tax incentives, government subsidies, and credit support. In addition, heterogeneity tests find that industrial promotion has a more significant effect on corporate innovation among small-scale firms and firms operating in highly competitive industries and regions characterized by high marketization. The empirical findings presented provide evidence for enhancing corporate innovation performance through industry promotion in China’s Five-Year Plans and offer insights that can refine the formulation of Five-Year Plans.

The enactment of policies that bolster new research and development (R&D) institutions stands as a pivotal strategy to catalyze urban innovation and development. Adopting a strategic lens of innovation chain management and employing the Differences-in-Differences (DID) method to scrutinize panel data from 43 Chinese cities spanning 2008 to 2019, this study probes the efficacy and underlying mechanisms of policies designed to support nascent R&D institutions in facilitating urban innovation. Empirical findings reveal that policies in support of new R&D institutions have markedly enhanced the three integral stages of the urban innovation chain: research and development, transfer, and application. Furthermore, the innovation ambiance within cities and the innovative activities of enterprises emerge as significant mediators between support policies and the output of urban innovation across these stages. A regional heterogeneity analysis unveils that the impact of support policies on the output of urban innovation diverges across regions, with a notably more pronounced effect observed in the eastern region compared to central and western regions. An objective appraisal of the policy's impact on urban innovation not only aids in delving into the profound implementation effects of policy instruments but also furnishes policy-makers with decision-making references for optimizing the utilization of support policies for new R&D institutions to advance the edification of the national innovation system.