Place-based policies, creation and reallocation effects on city exports: Insights from China's cross-border E-commerce comprehensive pilot zones

This study explores the impact of a significant export-oriented place-based policy, China's Cross-Border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zones (CPZs), on city exports. Employing a generalized difference-in-differences approach, we find that the CPZ program substantially enhances exports in both the host cities and their neighboring non-CPZ cities within the same provinces. The policy's positive effects are more pronounced for exporters than for producers. Further analysis reveals that initiatives promoting offline agglomeration positively affect both exporters and producers. We also observe notable heterogeneity in CPZ effectiveness based on local political capacity, geographic location, and administrative status. This paper provides new insights into how place-based policies reshape the spatial layout of the export industry, highlighting the heterogeneous effects of specific policy measures on different participants along the value chain and the spillover effects across regions.