2019-11-28
王洁晶|中国人民大学公共管理学院助理教授
来源：Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, First Published November 18, 2019. DOI: 10.1177/0308518X19887478
【Abstract】Cities with great government capacity are expected to become more effective in mobilizing resources and promoting urban economic development than other cities. While urban government capacity is important in its own right, its size structure across nearby cities is crucial because multiple channels wherein local governments generate externalities beyond their jurisdictions are present. By quantifying urban government capacity and regional size structure across Chinese cities in 2010, I examine the direct effect of a city’s government capacity on its economic performance and the indirect effect of the urban government capacity’s size structure among neighboring cities. Our analysis confirms that urban government capacity has a positive and significant effect on urban economic performance, and cities exhibit better economic performance in regions that have a leading city in urban government capacity than in regions where urban government capacity is relatively evenly distributed. Further examination suggests that the effect of urban government capacity on economic performance is stronger for cities in monocentric regions than in other regions.
【Key words】Government capacity, city-regions, size structure, urban development, China
【研究介绍】政府能力较强的城市能够更有效的调动资源以促进城市经济增长。城市政府能力的区域结构也被认为会影响其经济增长。但是，现有研究中对区域多中心还是单中心结构更能促进城市经济增长缺乏一致的结论。“增长极”理论认为中心城市能否产生溢出效应、降低交易成本，因此支持单中心的区域更能有效促进经济增长。也有理论认为由于 “虹吸效应”和“集聚阴影”等负面的影响存在，单中心区域并不利于城市经济增长，而多中心的结构则能通过促进竞争和区域合作，进而有效提升经济增长水平。而且，现有研究主要关注形态或者功能的结构，很少有研究关注政治结构对城市经济增长的影响。本文基于中国地级以上城市的截面数据，尝试定量化测量城市政府能力，并且检验政府能力及其区域结构对经济增长的影响。实证分析结果显示中国城市政府能力对城市经济增长具有显著的正影响，而且在政治单中心区域的城市经济增长好于政治多中心区域，说明“增长极”理论的解释更符合中国的情况。进一步检验发现，政府能力对城市经济增长的影响在政治单中心区域更为明显，说明“虹吸效应”和“集聚阴影”也同时存在。本文的发现表明改革开放以来我国政府通过中心城市带动区域增长的政策取得了成效，但是在一定程度上不利于非中心城市的增长，拉大了区域差异。
