The Impact of Industrial Agglomeration on Urban Innovation: An Empirical Analysis in China

Abstract

Based on the theory of industrial agglomeration affecting urban innovation, the panel data of 269 prefecture-level cities and above in China from 2011 to 2017 was used to empirically analyze the internal relationship between industrial agglomeration and urban innovation. The study found that overall industrial agglomeration and tertiary industry agglomeration have a significant promotion effect on urban innovation, while the secondary industry agglomeration does not significantly affect urban innovation; The overall industrial agglomeration and tertiary industrial agglomeration of eastern cities, large and medium-sized cities, and high-tech cities have a significant role in promoting urban innovation, while the promotion effects of mid-western cities, small-scale cities, low-tech, and medium-tech cities are not obvious; The secondary industry agglomeration has no significant impact on the innovation of all regional cities, large-scale cities, and cities with medium and high-tech levels, and the secondary industry agglomeration of low-tech cities also hinders urban innovation. However, with the improvement of the city's technological level, the effect of the concentration of secondary industries on urban innovation has gradually increased; Further analysis found that after using the PSM model to eliminate urban system differences, the basic conclusion that industrial agglomeration affects urban innovation is still valid. The secondary industry agglomeration has a threshold effect on urban innovation, and the effect of the secondary industry agglomeration on urban innovation will gradually increase with the increase of the degree of secondary industry agglomeration. It can be seen that China's high-quality secondary industry agglomeration effect has not yet formed. The above findings provide a theoretical basis for the rational formulation of industrial policies to promote urban innovation.