IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jregsc/v59y2019i5p797-818.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Heterogeneous impacts of China's economic and development zone program

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony Howell

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of economic and development zones (EDZs) on the productivity of incumbent firms in China. To deal with the selection issue, I first take into account potentially different selection mechanisms across two popular types of EDZs—economic and technological development zones (ETDZs) and high‐tech development zones (HTDZs)—by relying on multiple treatment propensity scores matching techniques. Next, I apply the difference‐in‐differences estimator to the matched sample and conduct an event study analysis. The results show that the respective effects of ETDZs and HTDZs on firm productivity are positive, but subject to a nonlinear trend over time. The size of the productivity gains depends critically on the type of EDZ, however. A new HTDZ (ETDZ) leads to an average productivity gain of up to 30.2% (18.4%) for incumbent firms in the 5 years after the zone was created. These findings suggest that the size of productivity spillovers for spatially targeted firms differ quite significantly depending on the strategic development and policy goals of the EDZ: HTDZs that focus on promoting indigenous‐based factors of learning lead to higher productivity spillovers compared with ETDZs that focus on promoting extra‐local linkages.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Howell, 2019. "Heterogeneous impacts of China's economic and development zone program," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(5), pages 797-818, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jregsc:v:59:y:2019:i:5:p:797-818
    DOI: 10.1111/jors.12465
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.12465
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jors.12465?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang Shen & Jing Wu & Shuping Wu, 2022. "City‐chief turnover and place‐based policy change: Evidence from China," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(5), pages 1296-1328, November.
    2. Ling Li & Fangzhou Xia, 2023. "City subcenter as a regional development policy: Impact on the property market," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 643-673, June.
    3. Ziliang Liu & Shengjun Zhu, 2021. "Changing institutional context and regional industrial dynamics: New evidence from the establishment of administrative approval centers in China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 1271-1294, September.
    4. Wenwen Wang, 2021. "The heterogeneity of agglomeration effect: Evidence from Chinese cities," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 392-424, March.
    5. Laiqun Jin & Xiuyan Liu & Sam Hak Kan Tang, 2021. "High-Technology Zones, Misallocation of Resources among Cities and Aggregate Productivity: Evidence from China," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 21-11, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    6. Anthony Howell & Chong Liu & Rudai Yang, 2020. "Explaining the urban premium in Chinese cities and the role of place-based policies," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(7), pages 1332-1356, October.
    7. Zehong Wang & Shaojian Wang & Jieyu Wang & Yuqu Wang, 2022. "Development zones and urban economic performance in China: Direct impact and channel effects," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 1762-1782, December.
    8. Anthony Howell, 2020. "Picking 'winners' in space: Impact of spatial targeting on firm performance in China," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(5), pages 1025-1046, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jregsc:v:59:y:2019:i:5:p:797-818. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-4146 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.