Is the Urban Shrinkage Inhibits the Improvement of Public Service Level?

Abstract

Public services provide convenient conditions for urban residents to study,work and live, and have important significance for improving the lifequality of residents and improving the level of welfare. However, whileChina’s spatial economic is heading towards agglomeration development,a large number of cities have shrunk, which has made unbalanced supplyof public services between regions increasingly prominent. Based on theexisting literature and the development reality, this paper analyzes theimpact of urban shrinkage on the public service level from the publicservice supply mechanism, and discusses the heterogeneous effects ofdifferent labor shrinkage on public services. The results of the study showthat urban shrinkage will inhibit the improvement of public service level,but inter-governmental competition makes the labor shrinkage of industryand service industry promote the improvement of public service level. Inaddition, this paper takes economic development level as a moderatingvariable to study the moderating effect of economic development level inthe impact of urban shrinkage on public service levels. It is found that thereduction of economic development level will promote government competition and provide more public services.