TITLE:
The Impact and Mechanism of Free Trade Zone Construction on the Innovative Development of Beijing’s High-End Service Industry
AUTHORS:
Liyan Liu, Ziyu Song
KEYWORDS:
Free Trade Pilot Zone, High-End Services, Institutional Openness, Specialized Clustering, Digital Infrastructure
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.16 No.9,
September
8,
2025
ABSTRACT: As the core vehicle for institutional opening-up, the construction of free trade pilot zones plays a crucial role in driving the innovative development of Beijing’s high-end service industry. This paper uses panel data from Beijing to construct a difference-in-differences model and a spatial econometric model, systematically arguing that free trade pilot zones influence the innovative development of the high-end service industry through four transmission mechanisms: demand expansion, knowledge spillover enhancement, information efficiency improvement, and institutional environment optimization. Empirical results show: First, free trade zone policies significantly promote the specialized clustering and enhanced industrial diversity of high-end services; Second, policy effects exhibit significant spatial spillover, with notable overall effects, and foreign-invested areas showing a significantly higher increase in total factor productivity compared to traditional service areas; Third, the construction of digital infrastructure and the reduction of institutional transaction costs constitute the core enabling pathways. Based on this, three policy frameworks are proposed: deepening institutional openness, strengthening digital-institutional synergy, and optimizing spatial layout, to provide theoretical support and practical models for building an open innovation ecosystem for high-end services.