Does Innovative City Policy Improve Green Total Factor Energy Efficiency? Evidence from China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Thank you for the opportunity to read this research paper.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper deals with an interesting and actual issue.
The impact of innovation activity on green total factor energy efficiency, and the role of the innovative city policies, represent important directions to do research about, especially in the actual economic and environmental context.
The article is very good written and the empirical work does appear to be carefully and correctly done. The methodology is well structured, with detailed presentation of the models and variables. However, a more in-depth presentation of the cities included in the sample, in relation to certain relevant indicators, would be useful, and also an analysis of the importance of each transmission channel in relation to the typology and specificities of the cities.
The conclusions, although well structured, need to be compared with other articles in the literature. This revision can help to understand what evidence is already present and how this study contributes to the scientific literature on the issue.
The paper also contains some pertinent policy recommendations.
General considerations: the idea of the article is valuable; the models and results are good and, after minor revisions, it can be considered for publication.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper is original and presents contributions to the research field.
The abstract describes the essential information, and the introduction explains adequately the framework and the goals of the research.
This study contributes to the selected research field; however, it needs to be improved in some detail, such as:
1) Firstly, the authors could create three different sections in this research, such us: (i) Discussion; (ii) Policies implications; (iii) and after the conclusion - Future research proposals;
2) In this work, different models and methodologies can be tested, such as: fixed effects vs random effects models; OLS and Robust OLS models; and also efficiencies models (inputs vs outputs); among others. If you can't test them all, they can be included in the proposal section for future studies;
3) After that, the authors should be more specific about government policies and policies implications at the economic, social, and environmental level;
4) The authors should include sustainable development goals (SDGs), and should explain the relationship and importance with the theme;
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
