IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v56y2019i8p1516-1532.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spatial structure and labour productivity: Evidence from prefectures in China

Author

Listed:
  • Wan Li

    (East China Normal University, China)

  • Bindong Sun

    (East China Normal University, China)

  • Tinglin Zhang

    (East China Normal University, China)

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of spatial structure, as measured on the monocentricity–polycentricity dimension, on labour productivity at the prefectural level in China. Using pooled cross-sectional and instrumental variable techniques, we find that, all else being equal, prefectures with a more monocentric spatial structure have a higher labour productivity, robust to different specifications. Furthermore, large agglomeration economies may fuel the beneficial effects of monocentricity. We conclude that, in terms of economic performance, monocentric-oriented spatial strategy could be a better choice for Chinese prefecture-scale regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Wan Li & Bindong Sun & Tinglin Zhang, 2019. "Spatial structure and labour productivity: Evidence from prefectures in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(8), pages 1516-1532, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:8:p:1516-1532
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098018770077
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098018770077
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098018770077?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ciccone, Antonio & Hall, Robert E, 1996. "Productivity and the Density of Economic Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 54-70, March.
    2. Ciccone, Antonio, 2002. "Agglomeration effects in Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 213-227, February.
    3. Evert J. Meijers, 2013. "Metropolitan Labor Productivity and Urban Spatial Structure," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Johan Klaesson & Börje Johansson & Charlie Karlsson (ed.), Metropolitan Regions, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 141-166, Springer.
    4. Monica Brezzi & Paolo Veneri, 2015. "Assessing Polycentric Urban Systems in the OECD: Country, Regional and Metropolitan Perspectives," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 1128-1145, June.
    5. 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.
    6. Robert J. Barro, 1998. "Determinants of Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Empirical Study," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262522543, December.
    7. Roberta Capello, 2000. "The City Network Paradigm: Measuring Urban Network Externalities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(11), pages 1925-1945, October.
    8. Au, Chun-Chung & Henderson, J. Vernon, 2006. "How migration restrictions limit agglomeration and productivity in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 350-388, August.
    9. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Laurent Gobillon & Sébastien Roux, 2010. "Estimating Agglomeration Economies with History, Geology, and Worker Effects," NBER Chapters, in: Agglomeration Economics, pages 15-66, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Evert J Meijers & Martijn J Burger, 2010. "Spatial Structure and Productivity in US Metropolitan Areas," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(6), pages 1383-1402, June.
    11. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2004. "Micro-foundations of urban agglomeration economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 48, pages 2063-2117, Elsevier.
    12. Xavier Gabaix & Rustam Ibragimov, 2011. "Rank - 1 / 2: A Simple Way to Improve the OLS Estimation of Tail Exponents," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 24-39, January.
    13. Jiří Malý, 2016. "Impact of Polycentric Urban Systems on Intra-regional Disparities: A Micro-regional Approach," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 116-138, January.
    14. 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.
    15. Miquel-Àngel Garcia-López & Ivan Muñiz, 2013. "Urban spatial structure, agglomeration economies, and economic growth in Barcelona: An intra-metropolitan perspective," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(3), pages 515-534, August.
    16. 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.
    17. Evert Meijers & Marloes Hoogerbrugge & Rodrigo Cardoso, 2018. "Beyond Polycentricity: Does Stronger Integration Between Cities in Polycentric Urban Regions Improve Performance?," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 109(1), pages 1-21, February.
    18. Brülhart, Marius & Sbergami, Federica, 2009. "Agglomeration and growth: Cross-country evidence," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 48-63, January.
    19. Michael Hoyler & Robert Kloosterman & Martin Sokol, 2008. "Polycentric Puzzles - Emerging Mega-City Regions Seen through the Lens of Advanced Producer Services," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(8), pages 1055-1064.
    20. Nick Bailey & Ivan Turok, 2001. "Central Scotland as a Polycentric Urban Region: Useful Planning Concept or Chimera?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(4), pages 697-715, April.
    21. Bumsoo LEE & Peter GORDON, 2011. "Urban Structure: Its Role In Urban Growth, Net New Business Formation And Industrial Churn," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 33, pages 137-159.
    22. Martijn J. Burger & Evert J. Meijers & Frank G. Van Oort, 2014. "Regional Spatial Structure and Retail Amenities in the Netherlands," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(12), pages 1972-1992, December.
    23. John B. Parr, 1987. "The Development of Spatial Structure and Regional Economic Growth," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 63(2), pages 113-127.
    24. Evert Meijers, 2008. "Measuring Polycentricity and its Promises," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(9), pages 1313-1323, October.
    25. John Parr, 2004. "The Polycentric Urban Region: A Closer Inspection," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 231-240.
    26. Davide Burgalassi & Tommaso Luzzati, 2015. "Urban spatial structure and environmental emissions: a survey of the literature and some empirical evidence for Italian NUTS-3 regions," Discussion Papers 2015/199, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    27. Leo Sveikauskas, 1975. "The Productivity of Cities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 89(3), pages 393-413.
    28. Anping Chen & Mark D. Partridge, 2013. "When are Cities Engines of Growth in China? Spread and Backwash Effects across the Urban Hierarchy," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(8), pages 1313-1331, September.
    29. Paolo VENERI & David BURGALASSI, 2011. "Spatial Structure and Productivity in Italian NUTS-3 Regions," Working Papers 364, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    30. Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), 2015. "Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 5, number 5.
    31. Rosenthal, Stuart S. & Strange, William C., 2004. "Evidence on the nature and sources of agglomeration economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 49, pages 2119-2171, Elsevier.
    32. J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), 2004. "Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4.
    33. Bumsoo Lee & Peter Gordon, 2007. "Urban Spatial Structure and Economic Growth in US Metropolitan Areas," Working Paper 8564, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
    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. Jiejing Wang, 2020. "Urban government capacity and economic performance: An analysis of Chinese cities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(5), pages 981-1004, August.
    2. Wei Xiao & Wenhua Liu & Chunzhi Li, 2022. "Can the urban spatial structure accelerate urban employment growth? Evidence from China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 1668-1693, December.
    3. Jun Zhang & Runni Zhang & Xue Zhang & Xiaodie Yuan, 2023. "Polycentric Spatial Structure Evolution and Influencing Factors of the Kunming–Yuxi Urban Agglomeration: Based on Multisource Big Data Fusion," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-18, July.
    4. Bindong Sun & Tinglin Zhang & Wan Li & Yan Song, 2022. "Effects of Polycentricity on Economic Performance and Its Dependence on City Size: The Case of China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-19, September.
    5. Kaiwen Liu & Hongbing Deng & Ting Wu & Yang Yi & Yao Zhang & Yunlong Ren, 2023. "Technological Innovation, Urban Spatial Structure, and Haze Pollution: Empirical Evidence from the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-25, September.
    6. Xu Yang & Xuan Zou & Ming Li & Zeyu Wang, 2024. "The Decarbonization Effect of the Urban Polycentric Structure: Empirical Evidence from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-17, February.
    7. Weikai Wang & Ya Ping Wang & Keith Kintrea, 2020. "The (Re)Making of Polycentricity in China's Planning Discourse: The Case of Tianjin," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 857-875, September.
    8. Yan, Siqi & Peng, Jianchao & Wu, Qun, 2020. "Exploring the non-linear effects of city size on urban industrial land use efficiency: A spatial econometric analysis of cities in eastern China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    9. Mingshu Wang & Ben Derudder & Xingjian Liu, 2019. "Polycentric urban development and economic productivity in China: A multiscalar analysis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 51(8), pages 1622-1643, November.
    10. P. V. Druzhinin, 2022. "Development of the Capital Cities of Russian Regions and Their Impact on Regional Economies," Studies on Russian Economic Development, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 169-175, April.
    11. Di Zhu & Yinghong Wang & Shangui Peng & Fenglin Zhang, 2022. "Influence Mechanism of Polycentric Spatial Structure on Urban Land Use Efficiency: A Moderated Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-18, December.
    12. Peng Ji & Lilin Yuan, 2023. "Whether polycentric spatial structure is conducive to regional coordinated development: A study on urban agglomerations in China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 940-961, December.

    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. 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.
    2. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1kv8mtgl748r0ahh12air9erdc is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Andres Dominguez & Hernán Enríquez Sierra & Nicolás Cuervo Ballesteros, 2021. "Regional Spatial Structure and Land Use: Evidence from Bogotá and 17 Municipalities," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-22, August.
    4. 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.
    5. Gilles Duranton & Diego Puga, 2020. "The Economics of Urban Density," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 3-26, Summer.
    6. Paolo VENERI & David BURGALASSI, 2011. "Spatial Structure and Productivity in Italian NUTS-3 Regions," Working Papers 364, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    7. Chauvin, Juan Pablo & Glaeser, Edward & Ma, Yueran & Tobio, Kristina, 2017. "What is different about urbanization in rich and poor countries? Cities in Brazil, China, India and the United States," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 17-49.
    8. Niebuhr, Annekatrin, 2016. "Benefits of dense labour markets - Evidence from transitions to employment in Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145715, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Graham, Daniel J. & Gibbons, Stephen, 2019. "Quantifying Wider Economic Impacts of agglomeration for transport appraisal: Existing evidence and future directions," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Giulio Cainelli & Andrea Fracasso & Giuseppe Vittucci Marzetti, 2015. "Spatial agglomeration and productivity in Italy: A panel smooth transition regression approach," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94, pages 39-67, November.
    11. Alessia Matano & Moisés Obaco & Vicente Royuela, 2020. "What drives the spatial wage premium in formal and informal labor markets? The case of Ecuador," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 823-847, September.
    12. Alessia Matano & Moisés Obaco & Vicente Royuela, 2018. "“What drives the spatial wage premium for formal and informal workers? The case of Ecuador”," AQR Working Papers 201806, University of Barcelona, Regional Quantitative Analysis Group, revised Jun 2018.
    13. 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.
    14. Alessia Matano & Paolo Naticchioni, 2009. "Wage distribution and the spatial sorting of workers and firms," Working Papers - Dipartimento di Economia 8-DEISFOL, Dipartimento di Economia, Sapienza University of Rome, revised 2009.
    15. Tanaka, Kiyoyasu & Hashiguchi, Yoshihiro, 2017. "Agglomeration economies in the formal and informal sectors : a Bayesian spatial approach," IDE Discussion Papers 666, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    16. Grace Carolina Guevara-Rosero & Stéphane Riou & Corinne Autant-Bernard, 2019. "Agglomeration externalities in Ecuador: do urbanization and tertiarization matter?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(5), pages 706-719, May.
    17. Daniel Graham & Kurt Dender, 2011. "Estimating the agglomeration benefits of transport investments: some tests for stability," Transportation, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 409-426, May.
    18. Andrew Perumal, 2017. "42 Years of Urban Growth and Industry Composition," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 45(2), pages 133-147, June.
    19. Grace Carolina Guevara Rosero & Stephane Riou & Corinne Autant-Bernard, 2015. "Agglomeration externalities and urbanization in Ecuador," ERSA conference papers ersa15p689, European Regional Science Association.
    20. Békés, Gábor & Harasztosi, Péter, 2013. "Agglomeration premium and trading activity of firms," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 51-64.
    21. Abel, Jaison R. & Deitz, Richard, 2015. "Agglomeration and job matching among college graduates," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 14-24.

    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:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:8:p:1516-1532. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.