Neighboring Cities Research Articles

Heterogeneous Effects of ICT across Multiple Economic Development in Chinese Cities: A Spatial Quantile Regression Model

Most previous articles estimate the effects of information communication technologies (ICTs) on economic growth average using national data without consideration of heterogeneity of ICT effects on cities across multiple economic development. The heterogeneity of ICT effects is confirmed to promote both the sustainability and equitableness of the whole cities. In order to investigate the heterogeneous effects of ICT between developed and less developed cities, a quantile spatial autoregressive (QSAR) model is applied to estimate coefficients at different quantiles while accounting for the spatial dependence of urban economy. We find significantly positive effects of ICT in local and neighboring cities after controlling the spatial dependence of urban economy. We have further found larger coefficients of ICT-related variables in cities with lower gross domestic product (GDP) per capital suggesting that digital dividend from ICT prefer the less developed cities over developed cities. Our conclusions indicate there would be “double dividend” from ICT, namely an improvement of both overall economic growth and balanced economic development among cities.

Satellite-Based Monitoring of Annual Coastal Reclamation in Shenzhen and Hong Kong since the 21st Century: A Comparative Study

To solve the shortage of land resources, many coastal cities have implemented coastal reclamation projects over the past few decades. Coastal reclamation can promote the economic development of coastal cities and improve human well-being in coastal zones. However, it can inevitably cause a series of ecological and environmental issues, such as coastal water pollution, ecosystem destruction, habitat loss, and land subsidence. Shenzhen and Hong Kong are two large neighboring Chinese coastal cities in southern China with different systems. As densely populated and economically developed cities, they face similar land shortage issues. However, recent coastal reclamation changes in Shenzhen and Hong Kong are unclear under different social and political systems. To fill this gap, this study aimed to monitor and compare recent annual coastal reclamation in Shenzhen and Hong Kong with totally different systems using free and open satellite products. Then, to compare the results of coastal reclamation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Large-scale coastal reclamation in Shenzhen and Hong Kong from 2000 to 2018 can be observed. The total area of coastal reclamation was 4140.7 hm2, of which the total coastal reclamation area in Shenzhen was 3409.8 hm2 and the total coastal reclamation area in Hong Kong was 730.9 hm2. Coastal reclamation in Shenzhen showed a temporal characteristic of “increasing slightly and then decreasing sharply”. Before and after 2010, the area of accumulated coastal reclamation were 3202.9 hm2 and 206.9 hm2. Comparatively, coastal reclamation in Hong Kong exhibited a temporal characteristic of “first decreasing and then increasing and then decreasing”. In 2002 and 2014, the scale of coastal reclamation was relatively large, with a total area of 501.8 hm2, accounting for 69.19% of its total area of coastal reclamation. The comparison between our produced coastal reclamation and the official area on coastal reclamation exhibited a good agreement based on correlation analysis (r = 0.99) and RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) (0.72). Since the 21st century, Shenzhen and Hong Kong have shown different, even opposite, policies on coastal reclamation. It will be necessary to continuously monitor future coastal reclamation driven by policies for better conducting sustainable coastal development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The role of social vs. physical environmental nuisances in affecting stress among Jewish and Muslim women in Israel

We calculate the effects of selected social and physical environmental nuisances on the autonomic nervous system balance among Jewish and Muslim mothers. Seventy-two Jewish and Muslim young healthy mothers from an Arab and Jewish neighboring city were tested in seven urban environments. Three social mediators (social discomfort, participation in household's decision-making and freedom of movement) and three physical mediators (thermal load, carbon monoxide and noise) were considered. Mean differences between Jewish and Muslim heart rate variability (HRV) and the effects of the mediating variables were calculated by ANOVA and stepwise multiple regressions. The results suggest that HRV was predominantly affected by social discomfort. Jewish and Muslim mothers experienced similar levels of social discomfort albeit; their responses differed by type of environment. Jewish mothers experienced stronger social discomfort in outdoor environments while Muslim mothers felt stronger social discomfort at home. Crossing ethnic boundaries was associated with increase in stress in both groups. Social discomfort played a stronger role in predicting stress in inter-ethnic environments. In conclusion, the study shows that social discomfort is a predominant environmental factor in predicting stress and related risk to health as reflected in the ANS balance across ethnicities. In addition ethnic specific factors like women freedom of movement played a minor role in effecting stress. At the same time the physical environmental aspects played essential role in effecting stress.

In Spain, private vehicles and greenhouse gas emissions are a losing battle

In 2016, the Madrid area, which comprises the capital and neighboring cities, had over 4 million private automobiles, in addition to around a million trucks, motorbikes, and vans. With up to 2.5 million vehicles, the current scenario in Barcelona is comparable. Both nations (and two of Spain's most populated towns) have started to consider severe measures to decrease vehicle exhaust pollution. In reality, certain measures (inadequate and controversial) were previously taken in 2016. It's safe to say that the battle against pollution has started. Are there going to be any winners? And how did they get to this point of no return? This study attempts to depict the development of greenhouse gas emissions in these sample nations, taking into account variables such as urbanization and economic crises.

Impact of the Social Determinants of Health on COVID-19-Related Mortality in a Northeastern Area of Brazil: A Spatiotemporal Modelling Study

Background: Social inequalities in health have been linked to disproportional impacts in COVID-19 mortality. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the spatiotemporal distribution of the COVID-19-related mortality and its association with the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) in Sergipe, Northeastern Brazil.Method: Ecological study using spatiotemporal analysis tools. All confirmed deaths related to COVID-19 in Sergipe, Brazil, from March 14 th to October 31 st 2020, were included and we calculated moving averages. Mortality crude rates were smoothed through Empirical Bayesian Method and were used for spatial analysis. We carried out the retrospective spatiotemporal scan statistics using the Poisson’s probability model. We used the spatial regression models to identify the association between COVID-19 mortality and Social Determinants of Health.Findings: 2,206 deaths by COVID-19 were registered in Sergipe. There was an increase of the moving averages, reaching the peak at of July 2020. A spatiotemporal cluster of mortality, comprising the metropolitan area and the neighboring cities. Illiteracy rate of people ≥15 years-old, percentage of children Interpretation: COVID-19 mortality in Sergipe was increasing until the end of July 2020 and it showed a spatiotemporal risk cluster in the metropolitan area. Educational and aging indicators were associated to mortality, which points out the necessity of prioritization and resources redirection to risk areas.Funding Information: No funding source was required for this study.Declaration of Interests: None to declare. Ethics Approval Statement: This study followed national ethical recommendations and the rules of Helsinki Convention. The research project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Federal University of Sergipe (CEP/UFS), registered under the approval 4,086,909.

ACOTSP-MF: A memory-friendly and highly scalable ACOTSP approach

Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a population-based meta-heuristic inspired by the social behavior of ants. It is successfully applied in solving many NP-hard problems, such as the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). Large-sized instances pose two memory problems to the ACOTSP algorithm: the memory size and the memory bandwidth.This work has focused on developing ACOTSP-MF, a new ACOTSP algorithm proposed to adequately manage the memory issues that arise while solving large TSP instances. ACOTSP-MF uses the nearest neighbor list, introducing a novel class of cities, the backup cities, while grouping cities into three classes: the nearest neighbor cities, the backup cities, and the rest of the cities (the majority). ACOTSP-MF also modifies how the base ACOTSP carries out the tour construction and pheromone update phases depending on the group to which a city belongs. This way, ACOTSP-MF reduces both the memory requirements of its data structures (from O(n∗n) to O(n)), and the memory bandwidth needs (thanks to better exploitation of the memory data locality).In this paper, we have carried out an in-depth analysis of ACOTSP-MF performance for medium and large TSP instances, covering vectorization and scalability issues and showing its main bottlenecks. For medium-size instances, the paper reports speedup factors of 20-500X for the rl11849 instance compared to the base ACOTSP version. ACOTSP-MF is intended and especially adequate for large-size instances. In this context, the paper reports excellent execution time for the Tour Construction phase, with less than 500 ms per iteration for the earring-200k instance. Finally, a study about the solution quality of ACOTSP-MF has been included, showing that ACOTSP-MF paired with local search offers high solution quality (within 2% of the best-known solution).

Investigation on the Planning and Development of Selected Neighbouring Cities

Continuing education to college is everyone's dream. Although not all have the same opinion about it, but cThe deficiency of policy and planning guideline regulation administering the neighbouring cities process has resulted in crucial urbanisation issues in the planning and development. This study analysed the neighbouring city's perception of the investigation of the neighbouring cities by examining planning’s local authority, planning developer, and planning consultant’s knowledge about neighbouring cities. In 50 questionnaire survey distributed to local authority department, planning developer, and consultant agencies in selected neighbouring cities in Malaysia, Cronbach’s alpha and reliability analysis were applied for the method in this paper. The result shows that 80% of the respondent know what neighbouring cities are and can explain the planning process of neighbouring cities. These results have recommended strategies to introduce the proper policy and guidelines for the neighbouring cities.

Understanding spatial spillover effects of airports on economic development: New evidence from China’s hub airports

Abstract Many studies have been conducted to examine the direct effects of airports on local economic development, however, there is little solid evidence on spatial spillover effects and much less in the context of China’s airport system. To fill this gap, this paper analyses the spatial spillover effects of China's main hub airports on economic development. Our results indicate that air passenger traffic, air cargo shipment, and flight frequency can induce more positive and larger spillover effects to all other neighboring cities connected through airport network contrast to the direct effects. With other things being equal, increasing flight frequency of existing air services has a greater impact on GDP compared with expanding air services to new destinations. This paper contributes to the literature by presenting new evidence on the spatial spillover effects of airports on economic development in Chinese cities.

On the effectiveness of short-term intensive emission controls on ozone and particulate matter in a heavily polluted megacity in central China

Intensive temporary air pollution control measures were implemented in Zhengzhou (ZZ), a megacity in central China, and six neighboring cities during the 2019 National Games of Ethnic Minorities. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and a high-resolution local emission inventory were applied to evaluate the control measures. Reductions of ~35–60% of primary PM (PPM), 45–65% of VOCs, ~5% of NH3, 35–45% of NOx, and 30–70% of SO2 emissions in the central area (i.e., ZZ) and collaborative cities (i.e., the six neighboring cities) lead to significant reductions of daily PM2.5 by 25–45% in ZZ. Hourly concentrations of PM2.5 are reduced by as much as 100 μg m−3. Most of the reduction in PM2.5 is due to primary PM, and NO3−, SO42−, and NH4+ ion concentrations only decrease by 5–6%. Emission reductions in the collaborative cities contribute to 10–30% of the decrease in PM2.5 and PM10 in ZZ. Concentrations of daily maximum 8-hr (DM8H) O3 increase by 2–5% on high O3 days. Isopleth analysis suggests that the local molar reductions ratio of NOx to VOC needs to be < 0.5 to avoid the increases. More stable meteorology conditions make emission controls in ZZ more effective for PM2.5 and PM10 but lead to higher increases in DM8H O3. These results suggest that control of PPM emissions in ZZ is the most effective in reducing PM2.5 and PM10. However, reductions of precursor gaseous in ZZ and the six neighboring cities alone are not effective in reducing the secondary PM components and most likely lead to increases in DM8H O3.

Spatial Spillover Effects of Mega-City Lockdown Due to Covid-19 Outbreak: Evidence from Turkey

With the Covid-19 outbreak, academic studies have been started to calculate the economic effects of the outbreak. Since it is not possible to determine when epidemics/pandemics (or large magnitude earthquakes, etc.) occur, their negative economic effects cannot be precisely predicted. Decreasing consumption and supply at the same time, breaking the supply chain, closing businesses and increasing unemployment are rapidly disrupting economic conditions. The measures are mostly related to issues at the macroeconomic level. If a full curfew is imposed throughout the country, economists are working on how it will have an impact on the economy of the whole country. However, the analysis of the effects at the regional level is discussed secondarily. The aim of this study is to simulate the effects of an economic lock-down that might take place in two important mega cities such as Istanbul and Izmir. As a result of this analysis made using spatial econometrics tools; in the event of a lockdown (or earthquake) in mega cities such as İstanbul and/or İzmir, there will be major economic difficulties that will spread wave by wave to the neighbouring cities and then eventually to the whole country.

Epidemic spreading and control strategies in spatial modular network

Epidemic spread on networks is one of the most studied dynamics in network science and has important implications in real epidemic scenarios. Nonetheless, the dynamics of real epidemics and how it is affected by the underline structure of the infection channels are still not fully understood. Here we apply the susceptible-infected-recovered model and study analytically and numerically the epidemic spread on a recently developed spatial modular model imitating the structure of cities in a country. The model assumes that inside a city the infection channels connect many different locations, while the infection channels between cities are less and usually directly connect only a few nearest neighbor cities in a two-dimensional plane. We find that the model experience two epidemic transitions. The first lower threshold represents a local epidemic spread within a city but not to the entire country and the second higher threshold represents a global epidemic in the entire country. Based on our analytical solution we proposed several control strategies and how to optimize them. We also show that while control strategies can successfully control the disease, early actions are essentials to prevent the disease global spread.

Mapping the Cultural Identities of Youths in Hong Kong from a Social Capital Perspective

With its unique geopolitical status and multicultural setting, Hong Kong has harbored different youth groups generated from cross-border migration with mainland China who are tied to different cultural values and identifications. This study aims to investigate how social capital embedded in the family, school, and community influences the cultural identities across three groups of Chinese youths in the educational system: local students; cross-border students (born in Hong Kong, living in the neighbor city of mainland China but attending schools in Hong Kong on daily commute); and new immigrant students (born in mainland China but living in Hong Kong for less than seven years). Using data from a cross-sectional survey with 2180 fourth- to ninth-grade students in Hong Kong, the logistic regression results suggest that family and community social capital play significant roles in shaping the cultural identity of youths. Implications of the research findings are discussed.

Spatio-Temporal Variations of CO2 Emission from Energy Consumption in the Yangtze River Delta Region of China and Its Relationship with Nighttime Land Surface Temperature

The rapid development of industrialization and urbanization has resulted in a large amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which are closely related to the long-term stability of urban surface temperature and the sustainable development of cities in the future. However, there is still a lack of research on the temporal and spatial changes of CO2 emissions in long-term series and their relationship with land surface temperature. In this study, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) data, Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) composite data, energy consumption statistics data and nighttime land surface temperature are selected to realize the spatial informatization of long-term series CO2 emissions in the Yangtze River Delta region, which reveals the spatial and temporal dynamic characteristics of CO2 emissions, spatial autocorrelation distribution patterns and their impacts on nighttime land surface temperature. According to the results, CO2 emissions in the Yangtze River Delta region show an obvious upward trend from 2000 to 2017, with an average annual growth rate of 6.26%, but the growth rate is gradually slowing down. In terms of spatial distribution, the CO2 emissions in that region have significant regional differences. Shanghai, Suzhou and their neighboring cities are the main distribution areas with high CO2 emissions and obvious patch distribution patterns. From the perspective of spatial trend, the areas whose CO2 emissions are of significant growth, relatively significant growth and extremely significant growth account for 8.78%, 4.84% and 0.58%, respectively, with a spatial pattern of increase in the east and no big change in the west. From the perspective of spatial autocorrelation, the global spatial autocorrelation index of CO2 emissions in the Yangtze River Delta region in the past 18 years has been greater than 0.66 (p &lt; 0.01), which displays significant positive spatial autocorrelation characteristics, and the spatial agglomeration degree of CO2 emissions continues to increase from 2000 to 2010. From 2000 to 2017, the nighttime land surface temperature in that region showed a warming trend, and the areas where CO2 emissions are positively correlated with nighttime land surface temperature account for 88.98%. The increased CO2 emissions lead to, to a large extent, the rise of nighttime land surface temperature. The research results have important theoretical and practical significance for the Yangtze River Delta region to formulate a regional emission reduction strategy.

Disentangling the contributions of urban and production sources in short- and medium-chain chlorinated paraffin concentrations in a complex source region

Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) and medium-chain chlorinated paraffins (MCCPs) were measured in tree bark samples. These samples were collected around a chemical industrial park containing several chlorinated paraffin (CP) production plants, in a nearby city (Zhengzhou), and along a transect between the industrial park and city. Theoretical air concentrations were back-calculated from concentrations in bark using a predictive equation for estimating equilibrium bark-air partition coefficients. We developed this equation from a series of previously published Kbark-air measurements. Comparison of the normalized concentration profiles along south to north transects showed that wind played only a minor role in CP concentrations and profiles in the region. Three distinct source profiles were found in the complex source region. A fingerprint analysis technique was used to quantify the contribution of each source to the CP burden at various locations along the transect. We found that CP profiles at sites up to 6 km from the industrial park were strongly influenced by CP plant emissions, whereas the sites located in the rural zone and rural-urban interface were influenced by a mixture of CP plant emissions and the neighboring city.

Climate action assessment in three small municipalities in British Columbia: advancements vis-à-vis major neighboring cities

This paper applied a recently developed Local Government Climate Action Assessment Framework to identify whether small municipalities in British Columbia are on track to meet their climate targets and to better understand the effectiveness of their climate-related actions. The aim of this paper was (1) to further test the assessment framework by evaluating its applicability for smaller municipalities, (2) to evaluate and categorize local progress in three small cities, namely Campbell River, Prince George and Revelstoke, and (3) to contrast these climate actions with actions taken by larger municipalities in BC, using the same assessment framework. This assessment revealed that key external support made available to expand on their Integrated Community Sustainability Plans provided for striking similarities among the three case studies regarding their strategies and plan formulations for which actions were largely transformative or reformative. However, the three small cities were lacking periodic reporting and monitoring of actions and presented shorter timeframes of up to 20-50 years for their planning horizons, all of which negatively impact their prioritization strategies. The main difference between larger and smaller cities was found among actions related to the feedback and evaluation category of the framework, with smaller cities performing more poorly. Greater shift in priorities away from climate change-related actions were evident in smaller local governments, signalling their more vulnerable position regarding changes in leadership in local and provincial administrations. This study highlights the key role that strategic alliances, networks, and external champions as partners play in planning and implementing climate action and in increasing public interest in sustainability. Thus, these should be fostered and promoted to keep building local capacity and effectively accelerate greater change through e.g., strengthening their capacity to implement, monitor and evaluate climate actions.

Abstract PO-026: Minimize impact of pandemic on radiation oncology department: Experience from a moderate-sized regional cancer program in the battle against COVID-19 virus

Abstract Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 virus as pandemic on March 12, 2020. Now it has infected more than 5 million people in 188 countries and caused more than 340,000 deaths. The purpose of this paper is to share the experience of our radiation oncology department in a moderate-sized regional cancer center (1,600 new consults for radiation per year) in the battle against COVID-19, including the safety measures taken and the lessons learned. Methods: Our institution is located in the neighbor city of one of the largest COVID-19 epicenters in the USA. We have taken precautionary measures gradually to continue our practice in radiation oncology in order to reduce impact on vulnerable cancer patients. These include reducing the number of entrance doors for both staff and patients; restricted visitor policy; mandatory screening questionnaires; social distancing in waiting rooms; self-quarantine of staff with travel history or symptoms similar to COVID-19; most responsible physicians reviewing every case to prioritize or defer consultation, investigation, or treatment; telemedicine for most consultation and follow-up visits; universal COVID-19 swabbing test for all symptomatic and asymptomatic cancer patients before starting treatment planning or radiotherapy; full personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff doing CT simulation or delivering treatment; mandatory face mask for everyone in the building; keeping 2/3 of all radiation oncologists (RO) and dosimetrists working from home on a roster schedule; and discouraging handling physical paper charts and documents in a completely paperless working environment. Results: We saw 267 new consults in the 10 weeks between March 16 and May 24, 2020, vs. 274 in the same period last year. There is no significant difference in average consults per RO, 44.5 (30-60) vs. 45.7 (24-67), p=0.799 (Student’s t-test), or wait time within provincial target of 2 weeks, 93.5% vs 97%, p=0.074. We performed 193 swabbing tests for 183 patients, with 10 patients bein.g swabbed twice. Most were asymptomatic (144), with 49 symptomatic. Only 0.52% tested positive (1 asymptomatic case), lower than many other cancer institutions reported in the literature, and there were no cases among staff. During the same 10 weeks, confirmed cases in our community and the province increased from 0 to 912 (6.05% positive tests) and from 142 to 25,904 (4.18% positive tests), with 63 and 2,102 deaths, respectively. Conclusions: Due to restrictions to test asymptomatic patients and to use PPE, the COVID-19 testing rate is far from reaching the provincial target and the new cases and deaths are more than originally predicted. However, our department was not heavily affected due to the diligent team effort ahead of policy changes in the province. It is possible for frontline health care teams to minimize the risk of cancer patients getting COVID-19 and avoid treatment interruptions by planning safety measures early, even before the first case in the community and before formal provincial guidelines become available. Citation Format: Ming Pan, Khalid Hirmiz, Junaid Yousuf, Kitty Huang, Colvin Springer, Ken Schneider, Laura D’Alimonte. Minimize impact of pandemic on radiation oncology department: Experience from a moderate-sized regional cancer program in the battle against COVID-19 virus [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer; 2020 Jul 20-22. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2020;26(18_Suppl):Abstract nr PO-026.

Measurement and spatial spillover effects of port comprehensive strength: Empirical evidence from China

We used the “technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution” model to measure port comprehensive strength and its spatial features on the basis of the concept of regional balanced development during the period of port resources integration. Using the panel data for coastal cities from 2001 to 2017, we built a spatial econometric model of port comprehensive strength to explore the effect of port comprehensive strength on economic growth and its spatial spillover effect. The study found the following: (1) The hierarchical structure of China's coastal ports has expanded toward a flat pyramid structure, the shift of which enlarges middle- and high-level ports and shrinks the low-level ones; China's coastal port groups present a “core-periphery structure,” which focuses on international and national hubs. (2) China's coastal port comprehensive strength has a significant spatial spillover effect on the economic growth in local and neighboring cities; for every 1% increase in port comprehensive strength, the peripheral economic growth contributes by 0.08% and 0.04%. (3) The spatial spillover effect of coastal port comprehensive strength on the scale of the port group reflects a spatial conglomeration effect and regional differences: the coastal port comprehensive strength of the Pearl River Delta and the Southeast coastal area presents direct and indirect double spillover effects, the port groups in the Yangtze River Delta and Southeast coastal area have a direct spillover effect only, and the Southwest port groups have a double negative spillover effect.

Can Time–Space Compression Promote Urban Economic Growth? Evidence from China's High‐speed Rail Projects

AbstractThis paper studies the effect of high‐speed rail (HSR) on urban economic growth using a panel data comprising 285 Chinese cities in 2007–2017. Combining the endogenous growth model with a difference‐in‐difference analysis, we extend the horse‐mass theory to explain how China may use HSR to avoid the so‐called middle‐income trap. The paper also examines the efficient boundaries of HSR and simultaneously studies HSR time–space compression as well as the city neighboring effects on economic growth. It is found that HSR's efficient boundaries are within the range of 200–1,200 km for provincial capitals and 50–300 km for prefecture‐level cities. HSR stimulates economic growth by approximately 0.6 percent, and the neighboring effect accounts for one‐quarter of economic growth. Three policy implications are drawn: (i) China needs to further reduce the travel times between the inland provincial cities and Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou; (ii) China should build a denser HSR network to maximize its economic impact on the vast majority of cities; (iii) China needs to develop some powerful economic growth centers in the inland areas to lead the development of their neighboring cities.

Industrial Structure Changes, Spatial Spillover and Economic Growth in the Yangtze River Delta

Shi, L.Y., 2020. Industrial structure changes, spatial spillover and economic growth in the Yangtze River Delta. In: Qiu, Y.; Zhu, H., and Fang, X. (eds.), Current Advancements in Marine and Coastal Research for Technological and Sociological Applications. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 107, pp. 377-382. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Based on the data of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2003 to 2016, this paper constructs a spatial Durbin model (SDM) and empirically tests the relationship between the industrial structure changes and economic growth. The results show that the industrial structure rationalization is not only conducive to the promotion of local economic growth, but also has a positive spatial spillover effect on other spatial neighboring cities. The industrial structure upgrading has a significant negative impact on the economic growth, and has a significant negative spatial spillover effect. Therefore, cities in the Yangtze River Delta should focus on improving the industrial structure rationalization and it is not appropriate to overemphasize the upgrading of industrial structure.

Pilot governance and the rise of China's innovation

This paper provides empirical evidence for the significant role of pilot governance for the rise of innovation in China. Using patent data of Chinese cities between 1984 and 2010, the high-tech industrial development zone (HIDZ) pilot governance effect on innovation was examined. The results show that HIDZ pilot governance significantly improved the innovation output of cities. Furthermore, pilot governance was found to promote enterprise-university-research cooperations and attract an increasing number of enterprises to gather in HIDZs, which results in increasing innovation for pilot cities. Moreover, the HIDZ pilot governance conveys spillover effects to neighboring cities. This paper provides evidence to a growing body of theoretical literature, further emphasizing the role of pilot governance for promoting the development of local innovation.