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China has entered the stage of high-quality development, and the construction of new-type urbanization is an important approach for the realization of the country's high-quality economic development as well as reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. The existing literature has produced a number of fruitful research results on the economic and environmental effects of the transformation of urbanization. However, few studies have tested the effects of the new-type urbanization construction on energy efficiency and their mechanisms from the perspective of exogenous impact. Therefore, in the context of China's actual situation, this paper constructed a theoretical framework of 'technological progress－population agglomeration－urban expansion,' and then deeply explained how the comprehensive pilot policy for new-type urbanization affected energy efficiency. Based on the panel data of 285 cities in China, this paper made an innovative breakthrough from the existing empirical analyses by dividing energy efficiency into total-factor energy efficiency and green total-factor energy efficiency, choosing the comprehensive pilot policy for new-type urbanization as a quasinatural experiment, and using the difference-in-differences method to examine the mechanisms and impact of new-type urbanization on energy efficiency. The results showed that: ① After a series of robustness tests, the impact of the comprehensive pilot policy for newtype urbanization on total-factor energy efficiency and green total-factor energy efficiency was significantly negative, and the effect increased year by year. ② Mechanism analysis showed that new-type urbanization mainly hindered the improvement of energy efficiency by promoting technological progress, boosting population agglomeration, and stimulating urban expansion. ③ According to the analysis of the effect of the regional biased policy, the regionally biased policy leaning toward the central and western regions did not promote the energy-saving effect of new-type urbanization. ④ According to the analysis of the effect of urban agglomeration mode, joining an urban agglomeration helped enhance the effect of the new-type urbanization on energy efficiency. This study provides empirical evidence and policy implications for promoting China's new-type urbanization, avoiding unfavorable factors, and achieving a 'win-win' situation of the high-quality development of new-type urbanization and the improvement of energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies focus on analyzing the impact of manufacturing agglomeration from the aspects of economic benefits and en⁃ vironmental benefits, but few studies systematically explore how manufacturing agglomeration affects regional green development wel⁃ fare. In fact, China has entered the stage of high-quality development, and improving the social welfare of green development is an in⁃ herent requirement and essential attribute of this stage. From the unique perspective of manufacturing agglomeration, based on external economic theory, this paper systematically explored the influence mechanism of manufacturing agglomeration on green development welfare. Using the panel data of 110 cities of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2003 to 2016, the green development welfare level was evaluated dynamically and multi-dimensionally, and the GS2SLS method that controls the spatial spillover effect and endogeneity simultaneously was adopted to systematically investigate the impact of manufacturing agglomeration on regional green development wel⁃ fare, thereby revealing the character of the spatial spillover effect and its attenuation, and verifying the differential impact of the exter⁃ nalities of manufacturing agglomeration on regional green development welfare. The historical instrumental variables such as whether the city was a trade port forced to open in a series of unequal treaties from 1840 to 1909 in the Qing dynasty, and whether the city had a railroad by 1933, and the natural instrumental variables such as the topographic relief amplitude of the cities were collected manually and used as instrumental variables for endogenous variables. The results showed that: ① The green development welfare of the Yangtze River Economic Belt presented a spatial pattern of 'clumpy aggregation at low level and point-like distribution at high level', and the upstream areas had more potential for growth in the future. ② Appropriate manufacturing agglomeration could improve regional green development welfare, while excessive manufacturing agglomeration would inhibit the improvement of regional green development wel⁃ fare. ③ The impact of manufacturing agglomeration on regional green development welfare decreased with the increase of spatial dis⁃ tance, showing a 'double peak' structure. ④ MAR externality and Jacobs externality contributed to the improvement of regional green development welfare, while Porter externality showed a negative effect. Accordingly, this paper puts forward relevant policy recommen⁃ dations from the aspects of grasping the evolution law of green development welfare, formulating differentiated regional policies, promot⁃ ing regional integration, and selecting appropriate industrial agglomeration models, thus providing theoretical support and empirical evi⁃ dence to promote the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and build a world-class advanced manufacturing cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]