Spatial spillover effect of green innovation on economic development quality in China: Evidence from a panel data of 270 prefecture-level and above cities

•Constructing the evaluation index system of green innovation and EDQ.•Putting green innovation and EDQ in the same analytical framework.•The spatial econometric model is used to study the spatial spillover effect.•Using the panel data of 270 cities during 2005–2017 in China. Green innovation, which has spatial spillover effects, is a crucial way to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of urban economic structure, then to achieve sustainable development for the urban in China. Therefore, it is meaningful to study the effects of urban green innovation on economic development quality (EDQ). In this paper, using the panel data of 270 cities during 2005–2017 in China, we investigated spatial effect and effect decomposition result of green innovation on EDQ by applying Spatial Durbin Model (SDM). The results revealed that both green innovation and EDQ had demonstrated a trend of regional agglomeration and fluctuating development; the coefficient of direct effect and spatial spillover effect of green innovation on EDQ is significantly positive, green innovation is conducive to enhance EDQ in local city and adjacent cities. Therefore, it is necessary to put forward green innovation policy recommendations for around sustainable development.