Abstract: By taking 258 cities across the country as the object of the research, the panel data from 2004 to 2019 is selected to investigate the implications of economic target and market integration on high-quality economic development, and verify the mechanism of how economic target and market integration affect high-quality economic development. The results indicate that economic target constrains high-quality development, market integration facilitates high-quality economic development, and the interaction in between has a positive impact on high-quality development.The mechanism tests find that economic target constrains high-quality development by hindering innovation,and market integration facilitates high-quality development by optimizing the allocation of talents. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the economic target has a stronger inhibiting effect on high quality development in provincial capitals, and market integration has a stronger facilitating effect on high quality development in non-capital cities.Furthermore, the role of market integration on high-quality economic development is affected by the intensity of economic target with a single "threshold effect".

Key words: economic target, market integration, high-quality economic development