The Impact of the Spatial Agglomeration of Producer Services on Urban Productivity

Abstract

The spatial cluster effect of productive service industry agglomeration and the urban productivity level in 286 prefecture level cities in China during 2008–2018 were analyzed by using the Moran index and the Lisa cluster diagram. The results show that the spatial correlation between productive service industry agglomeration and urban productivity is high, as the high-value areas of producer services agglomeration are generally the high-value agglomeration areas of China's urban productivity level, while the low-value areas of producer services agglomeration are generally the low-value agglomeration areas of China's urban productivity level. Furthermore, the spatial econometric model was used to test the effect of producer services agglomeration on urban productivity in China. The results show that producer services agglomeration can effectively improve urban productivity in China, but its impact on the productivity in different cities is quite variable. The producer services specialization agglomeration on urban productivity in eastern China is more obvious, while the positive effect of the diversification agglomeration of producer services on urban productivity is more obvious in the West, the Central and the Northeast, but the promotion of eastern cities is less apparent.