Based on the pilot program for innovative development of trade in services implemented in 2016 as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper takes prefecture-level cities and above cities in China from 2006 to 2019 as samples and uses a double-difference model to evaluate the impact of the openingup of the service industry on the service industry structural upgrading. The empirical results show that the opening-up has a significant positive impact on the structure-upgrading of the service industry,

more »

... which improved by 5.5%. The conclusion of this paper is of great significance for further expanding the opening of the service industry and optimizing the structure of China's service industry.