Regional economic agglomeration is a core feature of spatial economic development.However,the guiding role of economic growth targets,as a key tool for local government to intervene in economic operations,in the spatial allocation of resource factors has not been fully explained theoretically.Based on the Free Capital (FC) Model in spatial economics,this paper breaks through the limitation of existing research that analyzes economic growth targets and spatial agglomeration separately,and incorporates economic growth targets into the theoretical framework of spatial allocation of resource factors.Through mathematical modeling and empirical research,it systematically explains the effects and internal mechanisms of economic growth targets on the degree of urban economic agglomeration.
The findings show a significant nonlinear U-shaped relationship between economic growth targets and the degree of urban economic agglomeration: when economic growth targets are at a low level, local governments tend to allocate resources according to a logic of broad coverage and basic provision, tending to disperse the core resources such as fiscal expenditure and land to achieve rapid economic growth in the short term. This process leads to the spatial dispersion of factors and reduces the degree of economic agglomeration.When economic growth targets exceed the critical value,the development logic of local governments shifts toward improving efficiency and strengthening agglomeration, concentrating resources to cultivate core growth poles and improve infrastructure in core areas, promoting the agglomeration of factors in advantageous regions, and thereby enhancing the degree of economic agglomeration.On this basis, this paper uses panel data of 280 prefecture-level cities across China from 2000 to 2019 and measures the degree of urban economic agglomeration with nighttime light data.The findings show that urban economic agglomeration follows a nonlinear U-shaped pattern, first declining and then rising as economic growth targets increase.Mechanism analysis indicates that the concentration of fiscal expenditure and land transfer are the key transmission channels through which economic growth targets affect the degree of urban economic agglomeration. Local governments achieve the switching of spatial development models under different growth targets by dynamically adjusting these two core policy tools.
In addition, heterogeneity analysis shows that the U-shaped effect is more significant in eastern China and large-scale cities, and higher innovation levels and shifts in development philosophy can effectively strengthen this effect. This research not only enriches the cross-disciplinary study of spatial economics and government governance, but also improves the theoretical system of the impact of economic growth targets on the spatial allocation of resource factors.It also provides a new theoretical perspective and analytical framework for future research.
上述3个指标作为地级市经济增长目标的工具变量,符合工具变量相关性和外生性的要求。第一阶段的 F 统计量P<0.001,表明工具变量与经济增长目标存在较强的相关性;Kleibergen-Paaprk M统计量检验表明,工具变量选取不存在弱工具变量问题,说明本文选取的工具变量合格。在此基础上,本文将上述3个工具变量进行回归分析。
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