Industrial Upgrading and New Quality Productive Forces: Evidence from China's Provincial Panel Data (2003-2022)

Accelerating the deep transformation and upgrading of industrial structure and forming new quality productive forces are essential components for China to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese Dream. After more than 40 years of rapid development, China has entered the "new normal" of development, making the advancement of new quality productive forces an urgent task. This paper reviews the evolution of China's industrial structure, argues the necessity for a new round of deep industrial transformation, and explores the impact of industrial structure transformation and upgrading on the level of new quality productive forces using various methods. The research findings are as follows:(1)The deep transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure can significantly promote the development of new quality productive forces, but there are obvious regional differences.(2)The core indicator of the improvement in the level of new quality productive forces is the enhancement of total factor productivity. Furthermore, this paper summarizes past industrial development processes and the challenges faced, and analyzes and discusses the potential challenges that may arise in promoting the development of new quality productive forces through deep industrial structure transformation, based on empirical research results.