IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chieco/v65y2021ics1043951x20301553.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of special economic zones on producer services productivity: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Xi, Qiangmin
  • Sun, Ruidong
  • Mei, Lin

Abstract

Do Special Economic Zones (SEZs) promote the productivity of producer services, and what are the channels of the effect? To shed light on these questions, we collect a dataset of 1.46 million producer service firms on the basis of the Second Economic Census of China. We then use the dataset to prove the productivity advantages of producer service industry in the SEZs. Guided by a “new” new economic geography model, we estimate these advantages using the IV model and unconditional distribution characteristic-parameter correspondence method. Results imply that agglomeration effect is the source of the productivity advantages of the producer services in the SEZs. This effect is positively correlated with the local manufacturing scale. A high industrial relevancy between the producer services and the leading manufacturing industry in the SEZs results in a strong agglomeration effect. The preferential policy in the SEZs reduces the entry barrier for firms and attracts a high proportion of inefficient firms entering with the selection effect. This result has a negative impact on promoting the productivity of producer services. The conclusions are robust in different circumstances.

Suggested Citation

  • Xi, Qiangmin & Sun, Ruidong & Mei, Lin, 2021. "The impact of special economic zones on producer services productivity: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:65:y:2021:i:c:s1043951x20301553
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2020.101558
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X20301553
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.chieco.2020.101558?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pierre‐Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Laurent Gobillon & Diego Puga & Sébastien Roux, 2012. "The Productivity Advantages of Large Cities: Distinguishing Agglomeration From Firm Selection," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(6), pages 2543-2594, November.
    2. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Gobillon, Laurent, 2015. "The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 247-348, Elsevier.
    3. Marc J. Melitz & Giancarlo I. P. Ottaviano, 2021. "Market Size, Trade, and Productivity," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 4, pages 87-108, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Cecile Gaubert, 2018. "Firm Sorting and Agglomeration," NBER Working Papers 24478, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Kristian Behrens & Gilles Duranton & Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, 2014. "Productive Cities: Sorting, Selection, and Agglomeration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(3), pages 507-553.
    6. Hanson, Andrew & Rohlin, Shawn, 2013. "Do spatially targeted redevelopment programs spillover?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 86-100.
    7. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Laurent Gobillon, 2011. "The identification of agglomeration economies," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 253-266, March.
    8. Gilles Duranton & Diego Puga, 2001. "Nursery Cities: Urban Diversity, Process Innovation, and the Life Cycle of Products," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1454-1477, December.
    9. Glaeser, Edward L. & Rosenthal, Stuart S. & Strange, William C., 2010. "Urban economics and entrepreneurship," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 1-14, January.
    10. Wang, Jin, 2013. "The economic impact of Special Economic Zones: Evidence from Chinese municipalities," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 133-147.
    11. Gaubert, Cécile, 2018. "Firm Sorting and Agglomeration," CEPR Discussion Papers 12835, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    13. Simon Alder & Lin Shao & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2012. "The Effect of Economic Reform and Industrial Policy in a Panel of Chinese Cities," DEGIT Conference Papers c017_061, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    14. Arimoto, Yutaka & Nakajima, Kentaro & Okazaki, Tetsuji, 2014. "Sources of productivity improvement in industrial clusters: The case of the prewar Japanese silk-reeling industry," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 27-41.
    15. Zheng, Siqi & Sun, Weizeng & Wu, Jianfeng & Kahn, Matthew E., 2017. "The birth of edge cities in China: Measuring the effects of industrial parks policy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 80-103.
    16. Marc J. Melitz & Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano, 2008. "Market Size, Trade, and Productivity (DOI:10.111/j.1467-937x.2007.00463.x)," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(3), pages 985-985.
    17. Melo, Patricia C. & Graham, Daniel J. & Noland, Robert B., 2009. "A meta-analysis of estimates of urban agglomeration economies," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 332-342, May.
    18. Baldwin, Richard & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2006. "Agglomeration, Offshoring and Heterogenous Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 5663, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Cecile Gaubert, 2018. "Firm Sorting and Agglomeration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(11), pages 3117-3153, November.
    20. Toshihiro Okubo, 2010. "Firm Heterogeneity and Location Choice," Discussion Paper Series DP2010-11, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Ning & Gong, Maoyu, 2022. "Economic and environmental outcomes of economic transition: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    2. Qiangmin, XI & Peng, JI, 2023. "Does the development zone promote population urbanization? Evidence from China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    3. Xin Fu & Tangyou Wang & Hongxu Yang, 2023. "Does Service Trade Liberalization Promote Service Productivity? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-22, April.
    4. Daguo Lv & Lingyu Zhang & Ren Lu & Jingtao Yao, 2022. "Industry characteristics and agglomeration of heterogeneous firms," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 49(1), pages 31-49, March.
    5. Kena Mi & Rulong Zhuang, 2022. "Producer Services Agglomeration and Carbon Emission Reduction—An Empirical Test Based on Panel Data from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-19, March.
    6. Ji, Mianmian & Lv, Wendai, 2022. "Demonstration zones reform and corporate philanthropy: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    7. Man Sun & Tao Song & Weidong Liu & Zhe Cheng, 2022. "Rejuvenating SEZs through Internationalization: A Case Study of Chinese Domestic and International SEZs," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-13, April.
    8. Rulong Zhuang & Kena Mi & Zhangwei Feng, 2021. "Industrial Co-Agglomeration and Air Pollution Reduction: An Empirical Evidence Based on Provincial Panel Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-19, November.
    9. Du, Mengfan & Zhang, Yue-Jun, 2023. "The impact of producer services agglomeration on green economic development: Evidence from 278 Chinese cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    10. Zheng, Liang, 2021. "Job creation or job relocation? Identifying the impact of China's special economic zones on local employment and industrial agglomeration," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    11. Tang, Maogang & Li, Zhen & Hu, Fengxia & Wu, Baijun & Zhang, Ruihan, 2021. "Market failure, tradable discharge permit, and pollution reduction: Evidence from industrial firms in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    12. 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.
    13. Jingyi Tian & Jun Nagayasu, 2023. "Financial Systemic Risk behind Artificial Intelligence:Evidence from China," TUPD Discussion Papers 44, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luigi Buzzacchi & Antonio De Marco & Marcello Pagnini, 2021. "Agglomeration and the Italian North-South divide," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 637, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    2. 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.
    3. Behrens, Kristian & Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric, 2015. "Agglomeration Theory with Heterogeneous Agents," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 171-245, Elsevier.
    4. Valter Giacinto & Giacinto Micucci & Alessandro Tosoni, 2020. "The agglomeration of knowledge-intensive business services firms," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 65(3), pages 557-590, December.
    5. Haasnoot, Cornelis W. & de Vaal, Albert, 2022. "Heterogeneous firms and cluster externalities: how asymmetric effects at the firm level affect cluster productivity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    6. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Gobillon, Laurent, 2015. "The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 247-348, Elsevier.
    7. Chun‐Yu Ho & Yue Sheng, 2022. "Productivity advantage of large cities for creative industries," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(6), pages 1289-1306, December.
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1kv8mtgl748r0ahh12air9erdc is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Lee, Jungho & Xu, Jianhuan, 2020. "Why do businesses grow faster in urban areas than in rural areas?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    10. Gilles Duranton & Diego Puga, 2020. "The Economics of Urban Density," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 3-26, Summer.
    11. Kiminori Matsuyama & Philip Ushchev, 2022. "Selection and Sorting of Heterogeneous Firms through Competitive Pressures," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1189, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    12. Eleonora Bartoloni & Andrea Marino & Maurizio Baussola & Davide Romaniello, 2023. "Urban Non-urban Agglomeration Divide: Is There a Gap in Productivity and Wages?," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 9(2), pages 789-827, July.
    13. Benjamin Schoefer & Oren Ziv, 2021. "Productivity, Place, and Plants," CESifo Working Paper Series 8843, CESifo.
    14. Chen, Natalie & Novy, Dennis & , Perroni, Carlo & Chern Wong, Horng Chern, 2023. "Urban-Biased Structural Change," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1484, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    15. Forslid, Rikard & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2014. "Spatial sorting with heterogeneous firms and heterogeneous sectors," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 42-56.
    16. Ana Gouveia & Sílvia Santos & Marli Fernandes, 2017. "The empirics of agglomeration economies: the link with productivity," GEE Papers 0067, Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos, Ministério da Economia, revised Feb 2017.
    17. Daguo Lv & Lingyu Zhang & Ren Lu & Jingtao Yao, 2022. "Industry characteristics and agglomeration of heterogeneous firms," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 49(1), pages 31-49, March.
    18. Li, Xiaoying & Wu, Xinjie & Tan, Ying, 2021. "Impact of special economic zones on firm performance," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    19. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2014. "The Growth of Cities," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 5, pages 781-853, Elsevier.
    20. Behrens, Kristian & Mion, Giordano & Murata, Yasusada & Suedekum, Jens, 2017. "Spatial frictions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 40-70.
    21. Fabien Candau & Elisa Dienesch, 2015. "Spatial distribution of skills and regional trade integration," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 54(2), pages 451-488, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    “New” new economic geography; Special economic zones; Producer services; Selection effect; Agglomeration effect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General
    • R52 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Land Use and Other Regulations
    • L52 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Industrial Policy; Sectoral Planning Methods

    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:eee:chieco:v:65:y:2021:i:c:s1043951x20301553. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/chieco .

    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.