Agglomeration Economies Research Articles

The spatial impact of high-speed rail on firm performance: The role of proximity to urban cores

This paper examines the spatial impact of high-speed rail (HSR) connection on firm performance in China at the micro level using a unique administrative dataset. Connected firms benefit from agglomeration economies and improved market access, but the redistribution of production inputs towards urban cores may have a negative impact on firms in peripheral regions. If these opposing forces are both subject to spatial decay but at different rates, proximity to urban cores could play a crucial role in determining the overall effects of HSR connection on firms. We find that connected firms located farther from urban cores benefit the most, indicating a steeper spatial decay in the redistribution effect relative to the agglomeration effect. This research enhances our understanding of the micro-level spatial impact of HSR on regional development.

Local labor market and the cross section of stock returns

Local labor market pooling is a crucial benefit in the economics of agglomeration (Marshall, 1890). To capture the pooling function, we employ segment information and occupation statistics to capture average pairwise labor force similarities for each focal firm. We find that firms in thicker local labor markets are underpriced and display significantly positive stock returns afterwards. The return predictability of local labor market measure is concentrated in non-mega cap firms; high-tech firms; younger firms; and firms with more high-skilled labor, less routine tasks, and lower labor intensity. Our results are robust to a battery of control variables and alternative measure specifications.

Can the Digital Economy Accelerate “Carbon Neutrality”?—An Empirical Analysis Based on Provincial Data in China

The prosperous development of the digital economy can trigger a comprehensive green transformation from factors of production to productivity and production relationships, providing a new path for China to achieve its goals of “peak carbon emissions” and “carbon neutrality.” This paper measures the development level of the digital economy in each region using panel data of 30 Chinese provinces (autonomous regions, municipality directly under the central government) from 2007–2019, and explores the effect of the digital economy on CO2 emissions, its transmission mechanism, and its impact characteristics through theoretical and empirical analyses. The results indicate that: (1) the development of the digital economy can effectively reduce CO2 emissions; (2) in addition to direct effects, the digital economy can indirectly suppress CO2 emissions by lowering energy intensity, promoting economic agglomeration, and increasing the use of robots; (3) the suppression effect of the digital economy on CO2 emissions has significant regional heterogeneity; the digital construction in east, north, central, northeast, and southwest China has shown a better CO2 emissions reduction effect, while the development of the digital economy in south and southwest China has not yet exerted the suppression effect on CO2 emissions. In the next development process, it should improve the efficiency of energy use, give full effect to the positive externalities of economic agglomeration, lower the threshold of robot use and expand the application scenarios, and make full use of the green development advantages of the digital economy.

Research on the Influencing Factors of The Green Coordinated Development of Productive Service Industry and Manufacturing Industry Under the Background of Dual Carbon

Under the dual-carbon background, along with the process of the two-wheel drive development strategy, the industrial synergistic agglomeration has quietly become the "new normal" of urban industrial spatial layout, and the green total factor productivity has become an essential measure of the quality of economic development of cities in China. This project takes the synergistic agglomeration at the factor level between the productive service industry and manufacturing industry as the perspective and analyzes the realization mechanism of green total factor productivity growth under the synergistic agglomeration of the manufacturing industry and productive service industry from the current situation of China's industrial development, which is also a deepening and expanding of the theory of agglomeration economy. This project first discusses the "greening" issue in the development process of the productive service industry and manufacturing industry, and applies the super-efficient DEA model to account for the green total factor productivity of the productive service industry and manufacturing industry according to the difference of industrial characteristics, and then expounds the inner mechanism of green total factor productivity growth under the synergistic agglomeration of industries. Then, the panel data of 24 provinces in China are used to modify the existing indexes for measuring the level of industrial synergistic agglomeration and analyze the impact factors of the synergistic evolution of the productive service industry and the manufacturing industry on the green total factor productivity. Finally, through scenario simulation analysis, different policy scenarios with different policy incentives are set up to study the impact of policy incentives further and propose corresponding policy recommendations.

Carbon emissions accounting and prediction in urban agglomerations from multiple perspectives of production, consumption and income

Urban agglomerations (UAs) play a momentous role in carbon reduction. The prerequisites for achieving carbon reduction goals in UAs are accounting and predicting their carbon emissions. When considering carbon reduction goals in China, it is crucial to pay attention to the joint influence of carbon emissions and economic benefits. Hence, in this study, an improved multi-regional input–output (MRIO) approach was established to quantify and predict carbon emissions for the UA, incorporating a biproportional scaling method (RAS) and Latin hypercube sampling (LHS). Specifically, a) the carbon emissions of UAs were quantified using the MRIO model from the perspectives of production, consumption and income; b) the carbon flows between cities in UAs were identified based on final demand and primary inputs, and c) the features of UAs’ carbon emissions in the future were predicted using RAS and LHS. To verify the effectiveness of the approach, a case study of a typical UA region in China [i.e., the Pearl River Delta (PRD)] was proposed. The results showed that the contribution of sectors to carbon emissions could be identified from multiple perspectives, and carbon flows can help regions coordinate emissions reductions. The majority of future carbon emissions would be generated from the areas of population and economic agglomeration (i.e., Guangzhou and Shenzhen), although the growth trend of carbon emissions of those would keep lower. The policy of carbon reduction should be urgently carried out in locations with high carbon emissions growth rates (e.g., Zhaoqing and Zhuhai). To improve the ability for carbon reduction in the PRD, cooperation in multiple cities to promote energy efficiency is advocated. The government should also increase technical support for carbon reduction and consider the balanced development of the economy, population, and resources in the PRD.

Morphology of Delhi National Capital Region’s Economic Geography and its Implications for Planning

There is now global evidence that it is cities and their immediate regions that drive economic growth. This report studies the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), which accommodates India’s foremost economic agglomeration, through an economic geography lens that closely synergizes with urban and regional planning and governance.

Global Competitiveness of Trade in the West Coast of Sumatra from the Perspective of the Agglomeration of Economic Approach

The main aim of this study is to analysed the pattern of agglomeration of trade flows in the city of Padang and Teluk Bayur Port with the regencies and cities along the west coast of Sumatra, as well as the factors that influence them. How competitive is trade flow with the West coast region compared to the East coast of Sumatra. The analytical approach used is spatial econometrics, especially the spatial lag model and spatial error model. The data used is the volume of loading and unloading of inter-island and foreign ships at Teluk Bayur Port and other districts and cities in 133 areas on the West Coast and 155 districts and cities in the economic corridors of Sumatra. The results showed that the West Coast trade flow variable had no significant effect on the existence of Padang City as the centre of economic agglomeration in the economic corridor area of Sumatra. Our findings are that trade flows in the city of Padang have not been able to encourage economic agglomeration in regencies and cities on the West Coast of Sumatra, on the contrary there are connections with regencies and cities in the economic corridors of the East Coast of Sumatra. Therefore, to accelerate the process of economic agglomeration through trade flows, joint policies are needed with the agricultural sector in the Sumatran economic corridor in facing global market competition, as well as strengthening inter-regional internal markets in the Sumatra corridor, agricultural commodity transactions between regencies and cities in the Sumatran economic corridor which must be strengthened, so as to be able to compete in a competitive global market.

Global Competitiveness of Trade in the West Coast of Sumatra from the Perspective of the Agglomeration of Economic Approach

The main aim of this study is to analysed the pattern of agglomeration of trade flows in the city of Padang and Teluk Bayur Port with the regencies and cities along the west coast of Sumatra, as well as the factors that influence them. How competitive is trade flow with the West coast region compared to the East coast of Sumatra. The analytical approach used is spatial econometrics, especially the spatial lag model and spatial error model. The data used is the volume of loading and unloading of inter-island and foreign ships at Teluk Bayur Port and other districts and cities in 133 areas on the West Coast and 155 districts and cities in the economic corridors of Sumatra. The results showed that the West Coast trade flow variable had no significant effect on the existence of Padang City as the centre of economic agglomeration in the economic corridor area of Sumatra. Our findings are that trade flows in the city of Padang have not been able to encourage economic agglomeration in regencies and cities on the West Coast of Sumatra, on the contrary there are connections with regencies and cities in the economic corridors of the East Coast of Sumatra. Therefore, to accelerate the process of economic agglomeration through trade flows, joint policies are needed with the agricultural sector in the Sumatran economic corridor in facing global market competition, as well as strengthening inter-regional internal markets in the Sumatra corridor, agricultural commodity transactions between regencies and cities in the Sumatran economic corridor which must be strengthened, so as to be able to compete in a competitive global market.

Exploring the impact of explicit and implicit urban form on carbon emissions: Evidence from Beijing, China

Urban form (UF) is an important factor influencing carbon emissions (CE), and it is necessary to fully understand the complex relationship between different UF and CE. The study estimates CE using a grid as a unit and depicts the spatiotemporal pattern of CE in Beijing from 2000 to 2020. Then, based on the demand for sustainable urban development, UF is defined as explicit urban form (EUF) and implicit urban form (IUF), and the effects of different UF on CE are explored using stepwise panel regression models. The results show that (1) from 2000 to 2020, CE in Beijing showed a decreasing trend, with an average annual decrease of 57.09 × 104 t and a decrease rate of 38.58 %. Spatially, the CE gradually decreases from the east-south direction to the surrounding area, and the overall performance shows that the high CE area shrinks and the low CE area expands. (2) The influence of EUF on CE is robust, and the influence of IUF on CE is relatively large but vulnerable to other factors. (3) In EUF, urban patchy connectivity, and agglomeration have a suppressive effect on CE, while urban complexity and expansion have a positive effect on CE, reflecting that regular and compact cities are the direction of low-carbon city construction. (4) In IUF, population density (PD), economic agglomeration (EA), land use diversity (SHEI), and road density (RD) can effectively reduce CE, while industrial structure (IS) greatly contributes to the growth of CE, indicating that IUF significantly affects CE by influencing the daily energy consumption and utilization efficiency, thus has a greater potential for CE. The study reveals the influence of EUF and IUF on CE and provides a scientific basis for policy formulation in urban spatial optimization and low-carbon city construction.

From Closure to Gradual Release: Evidence from the Spatial Evolution and Causal Mechanism of EGS Industry in the Main Town Area of Wuhan, China

With the economic impact and increasing popularity of the electronic gaming industry, EGS (Electronic Gaming Sports) had become an important topic of debate in sports academia regarding its conceptual delineation and attribute characteristics. This paper jumped out of the hotpot academic perspective of the concept, characteristics, and impacts of EGS. In response to the gaps in the spatial development of the EGS industry and the lack of empirical research findings, an interpretive empirical research method was adopted, focusing on Wuhan as the study area to gain insight into the situation where the spatial development of the EGS industry was unclear. The spatial evolution of the EGS industry in the main town area of Wuhan was interpreted through a quantitative approach and based on the spatial data of EGS companies from 2006 to 2022 using Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN), Kernel Density Estimation (KDE), and Ordinary Kriging (OK) of geospatial analysis. The results indicated closure to the gradual release of the EGS industry, with specific findings as follows. (1) The EGS industry in the main town area of Wuhan from 2006 to 2022 developed rapidly, and the overall spatial distribution showed a process from discrete to cluster, accompanied by an apparent deepening of aggregation in recent years. The local aggregation of the EGS industry transformed from dual to multiple cores, and the multiple cores formed stronger groups of aggregation as the cluster spread and merged. (2) The spatial interpolation of the registered capital of companies predicted the hot spot of high- capital distribution of EGS companies in the Optics Valley vice town area of Hongshan to the southeast, indicating that more competitive EGS companies and larger EGS industry groups might emerge in Optics Valley in the future. (3) The spatial evolution of the EGS industry in the main town area of Wuhan could be divided into an early start phase from 2006-2010, a rapid development phase from 2010-2014, an aggregate explosion phase from 2014-2018, and a cluster integration phase from 2018-2022. (4) The spatial evolution of the EGS industry was influenced not only by the main factors of industrial economic agglomeration, industrial chain derivation, and industrial policy environment but also by the other factors of land and talent market, adjacent infrastructure support, city industrial promotion, and globalization dissemination. The future development of the EGS industry could be guided by the government's industrial policies, supported by high-quality talent teams, and driven by local promotion and international communication to provide an essential impetus for the optimal EGS industry.

High-speed rail, economic agglomeration and urban innovation —— Analysis of Chinese evidence

ABSTRACT By adjusting the spatial and temporal distance between small and medium-sized cities and provincial capital cities, high-speed rail has reshaped the distribution of innovation resources, and eventually significantly affected China’s economy. Employing data from 284 Chinese prefecture-level cities for the period of 2005 to 2015, this paper uses the propensity score matching model (PSM-DID) to analyze the relationship between the high-speed rail opening and urban innovation in China. Our empirical results show that: 1) the opening of high-speed rail significantly improves the overall level of urban innovation in China, but affected by “the distance from provincial capital” which present a “∽”-type structural feature 2) the mechanism of the effect of high-speed rail on urban innovation is mainly to promote economic agglomeration; and 3) the impact of high-speed rail opening on urban innovation has gradually declined characteristics based on opening time and regional economy heterogeneity.

The Lebanese Entrepreneurial Resilience In Times Of Crisis

The Lebanese Entrepreneurial Resilience In Times Of Crisis

Impact of smart city pilot on energy and environmental performance: China-based empirical evidence

Attaining a win-win scenario among economic growth, energy conservation, and emission reduction is an essential requirement for the transformation towards smart cities. This research leverages panel data from 260 prefecture-level cities in China between 2009 and 2020, applies the non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) for the quantification of energy and environmental performance (EEP), and harnesses the multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model to empirically investigate the influence of the smart city pilot policy (SCPP) on EEP. The findings reveal the following. (1) SCPP significantly enhances EEP in cities of China. (2) Mechanism analysis indicates that SCPP primarily improves EEP by promoting economic agglomeration and driving innovation development. (3) The enhancement effect of SCPP on EEP exhibits a time lag and tends to decay in later stages, without exerting a notable spillover effect on EEP of neighboring cities. (4) The EEP of cities with lower administrative levels and insufficient resource endowments has experienced more substantial improvements under SCPP. This study offers valuable insights for developing countries with backgrounds similar to China for improving urban ecological environments and achieving sustainable development.

Cities and productivity: Evidence from 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries

This paper explores the roles of agglomeration economies and human capital externalities in accounting for productivity variations across sub-national areas in 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries. We estimate positive elasticities of productivity with respect to density. While heterogeneity exists across countries, the estimated agglomeration elasticities for the region are comparable to those estimated in the literature for high-income countries. Including human capital measures reduces the estimated agglomeration elasticities for several countries in our sample. We also find that human capital externalities play a stronger role in explaining spatial productivity differentials than agglomeration economies in the region. By providing comparable estimates of the strength of agglomeration economies and human capital externalities for many non-high-income countries, the paper considerably expands knowledge on the determinants of urban productivity.

Московская агломерация: история, современность, перспективы развития

According to the 2021 census, the population of the fifteen largest cities in Russia is about 33.5 million people, which is 22.7% of the country's population. The growth of the urban population of Russia, the concentration of business activity in growing urban agglomerations are natural processes of development of a modern urbanized society. Urban agglomerations have concentrated the main potential of the country's modernization, and the Moscow region has long been the flagship of the country's economy and there is no good reason to believe that the situation will change dramatically in the near future. At the same time, the extensive phase of the development of the agglomeration economy has been passed, and against the backdrop of growing economic and demographic problems, it is essential to understand the prospects for the development of the Moscow agglomeration.

Promoting or inhibiting? New-type urbanization and urban carbon emissions efficiency in China

Urban carbon emissions lead to increases in global carbon emissions; consequently, meeting targets for low carbon emissions is a difficult problem in the context of urbanization. Improving urban carbon emissions efficiency (UCEE) in the new-type urbanization (NTU) process is key to reducing urban carbon and enhancing sustainable urban development. However, the potential of NTU in facilitating improved UCEE remains unclear. Thus, we investigated the effect and transmission mechanisms of NTU on UCEE in China. A set of spatial econometric models was used, with panel data from 283 cities across China from 2006 to 2019. The results showed that NTU significantly promoted the improvement of UCEE, and UCEE improved strongly during the later stage of NTU construction. In China's central and western cities, large cities, and non-natural resource–based cities, the promotion effect of NTU on UCEE was more significant. Overall, the economic agglomeration effect had the most significant influence, followed by the government leading effect and resource allocation effect. Moreover, the NTU pilot policies of civilized city, low-carbon city, innovative city, smart city, and green finance city significantly promoted the improvement of UCEE. These findings provide theoretical and empirical evidence for the effective achievement of the “dual carbon” goal with respect to NTU in China.

The Energy-Saving Effect of E-Commerce Development—A Quasi-Natural Experiment in China

This study provides a viable path to save energy by means of e-commerce development. Taking the national e-commerce demonstration cities (NEDC) pilots policy implemented in China as a quasi-natural experiment, based on the city panel data from 2006 to 2019, this study applies the multi-period difference-in-difference (DID) method to evaluate the effect of NEDC on energy saving in pilot cities. The empirical results suggest that the NEDC policy obviously contributes to energy conservation. The treated cities reduced energy consumption by 14.2% as a result of the implementation of NEDC, relative to the untreated cities. The conclusions remain valid after conducting robustness tests such as placebo test, instrumental variables regression, propensity score matching-difference-in-difference (PSM-DID), and synthetic difference-in-difference (SDID). The NEDC achieves energy-saving effects through technological innovation, industrial restructuring, and economic agglomeration. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis indicates that, in cities with high levels of human capital, well-developed information infrastructure, non-resource-based cities, and favorable business environments, the impact of NEDC on energy saving is more significant. Analysis of spatial effects shows that the implementation of NEDC has negative externalities, increasing energy consumption in the surrounding area. In the context of the digital economy, this paper presents new insights on the relationship between e-commerce and energy consumption and provides policy direction for countries looking for energy-saving solutions.

Place-based policy and green innovation: Evidence from the national pilot zone for ecological conservation in China

This study examines the impact of the National Pilot Zone for Ecological Conservation (NPZEC) policy in China on green innovation (GI) using panel data from 282 Chinese cities during the period 2011-2019. Employing a difference-in-differences (DID) model, we find that the NPZEC policy positively influences GI, leading to a significant increase of approximately 23.98% in the number of green patents in cities where the policy is implemented. Mechanism tests reveal that the NPZEC policy enhances fiscal support and promotes economic agglomeration, thereby fostering GI. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that the NPZEC policy prioritizes quantity over quality, with a stronger impact observed in western cities, low administrative level cities, and cities with lower economic development. Additionally, our findings highlight that higher public environmental attention and stronger intellectual property (IP) protection enhance the promotion effect of the NPZEC policy on GI. Lastly, the findings indicate that the NPZEC policy has a negative impact on GI in neighboring cities. Our study provides empirical references for policymakers to scientifically implement place-based policies and effectively promote GI in the future.

Agglomeration economies in developing countries: A meta-analysis

Recent empirical work suggests that agglomeration forces are multiple times higher in developing countries than in advanced economies, but also that these cities are crowded and dysfunctional. To understand the true productivity advantages of developing country cities, we systematically evaluate nearly 1300 agglomeration elasticity estimates from 76 studies in 34 countries. Using frontier methodology for conducting meta-analyses, we find that the elasticity in developing countries are less than 1 percentage point higher than in advanced economies, with the difference not being statistically significant. Further, we present novel estimates of urban costs in developing and developed country cities – pollution, carbon emissions, wellbeing, homicides and congestion. While the levels of urban costs and the elasticity of crime are higher in developing country cities, other measures of urban cost elasticity are not different across income groups.

Toward spatially polarized human pressure? A dynamic factor analysis of ecological stability and the role of territorial gradients in Czech Republic.

In light of global change, research on ecosystem dynamics and the related environmental policies are increasingly required to face with the inherent polarization in areas with low and high human pressure. Differential levels of human pressure are hypothesized to reflect development paths toward ecological stability of local systems vis à vis socioeconomic resilience. To delineate the latent nexus between socioeconomic development paths and ecological stability of local systems, we proposed a multidimensional, diachronic analysis of 28 indicators of territorial disparities, and ecological stability in 206 homogeneous administrative units of Czech Republic over almost 30years (1990-2018). Mixing time-invariant factors with time-varying socio-environmental attributes, a dynamic factor analysis investigated the latent relationship between ecosystem functions, environmental pressures, and the background socioeconomic characteristics of the selected spatial units. We identified four geographical gradients in Czech Republic (namely elevation, economic agglomeration, demographic structure, and soil imperviousness) at the base of territorial divides associated with the increased polarization in areas with low and high human pressure. The role of urbanization, agriculture, and loss of natural habitats reflective of rising human pressure was illustrated along the selected gradients. Finally, policy implications of the (changing) geography of ecological disturbances and local development paths in Czech Republic were briefly discussed.