Based on the panel data of 285 cities from 2005 to 2016, the interactive relationship among the urban innovation behavior, the economic development and the environmental pollution is studied, and a panel threshold model is used, with the urban innovation behavior as the threshold, to verify the nonlinear relationship between the economic development and the environmental pollution. One sees an inverted U-shaped relationship between the levels of the economic development and the environmental pollution, and it is a single threshold nonlinear relationship based on the urban innovation behavior. Only when the level of the urban innovation crosses the threshold value, the economic development has a significant inhibitory effect on the environmental pollution. In the sample range, the level of the urban innovation constantly crosses the threshold, and the number of cities in the eastern region with the level of the urban innovation crossing the threshold is larger than those in the central and western regions. The industrial structure upgrading and the population agglomeration also help to reduce the environmental pollution, while the increase of the energy consumption will aggravate the environmental pollution. For all cities, the level of the urban innovation should be improved, to speed up the optimization and the upgrading of the industrial structure and to promote the development of green economy.

urban Innovation behavior  /  economic development  /  environmental pollution  /  threshold effect