Abstract: Industrial structure adjustment is the only way for rapid development of emerging economies. One of the important measures is the establishment of economic and technological development zones. This paper takes 12 eastern cities established or upgraded as China National Economic and Technological Development Zone in 2010 as research objects, and 37 eastern cities that have not established economic and technological development zones as control groups. Using the difference-in-difference model, we find that the construction of the national economic and technological development zone plays a significant positive role in the adjustment of the industrial structure of the city. In order to solve the endogenous problem, a propensity score matching method is adopted to reselect the experimental group and the control group and then a regression analysis is made. It is found that the above conclusions are still tenable, proving that after the economy entered the new normal, the economic technology development zone still play a leading role in the upgrading and optimizing of industrial structure.

Key words: China National Economic and Technological Development Zone, industrial structure adjustment, difference-in-difference model, propensity score matching