IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/anresc/v63y2019i1d10.1007_s00168-019-00932-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Industrial structure and urban agglomeration: evidence from Chinese cities

Author

Listed:
  • Zhi Li

    (National Development and Reform Commission)

  • Chengri Ding

    (University of Maryland
    Zhengzhou University)

  • Yi Niu

    (Capital University of Economics and Business)

Abstract

This paper investigates whether and how regional industrial structure/concentration influences firm productivity. Based on the firm-level data from China, the paper estimates firm productivity with regional structure conditioning on agglomeration effects and concludes that regional industrial structure plays little role in firm’s output, but affects localization agglomeration, which in turn affects firm productivity. In other words, localization agglomeration is stronger in cities in which sectors are less dominated by a few large firms in their own sector. Our conclusions are robust to the classification of industries, intertemporal, and spatial dimensions of agglomeration externalities, alternative measures of regional industrial structure and agglomeration, and different spatial scales in which standard errors are clustered. An important policy implication of our findings is that China’s industrial policies favoring large firms may be harmful to local economic development in the long term.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhi Li & Chengri Ding & Yi Niu, 2019. "Industrial structure and urban agglomeration: evidence from Chinese cities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 63(1), pages 191-218, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:anresc:v:63:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s00168-019-00932-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s00168-019-00932-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00168-019-00932-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00168-019-00932-z?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. Chang‐Yang Lee, 2005. "A New Perspective On Industry R&D And Market Structure," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 101-122, March.
    2. Edward L. Glaeser & William R. Kerr, 2009. "Local Industrial Conditions and Entrepreneurship: How Much of the Spatial Distribution Can We Explain?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 623-663, September.
    3. Drucker, Joshua & Feser, Edward, 2012. "Regional industrial structure and agglomeration economies: An analysis of productivity in three manufacturing industries," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 1-14.
    4. Stuart S. Rosenthal & William C. Strange, 2003. "Geography, Industrial Organization, and Agglomeration," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(2), pages 377-393, May.
    5. Bun Song Lee & Soomyung Jang & Sung Hyo Hong, 2010. "Marshall’s Scale Economies and Jacobs’ Externality in Korea: the Role of Age, Size and the Legal Form of Organisation of Establishments," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(14), pages 3131-3156, December.
    6. 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.
    7. Glaeser, Edward L & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(6), pages 1126-1152, December.
      • Edward L. Glaeser & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1991. "Growth in Cities," NBER Working Papers 3787, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
      • Glaeser, Edward Ludwig & Kallal, Hedi D. & Scheinkman, Jose A. & Shleifer, Andrei, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Scholarly Articles 3451309, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    8. Batisse, Cecile, 2002. "Dynamic externalities and local growth: A panel data analysis applied to Chinese provinces," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(2-3), pages 231-251.
    9. Michael J. Enright, 1995. "Organization and Coordination in Geographically Concentrated Industries," NBER Chapters, in: Coordination and Information: Historical Perspectives on the Organization of Enterprise, pages 103-146, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Munisamy Gopinath & Daniel Pick & Yonghai Li, 2004. "An empirical analysis of productivity growth and industrial concentration in us manufacturing," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 1-7.
    11. Long, Cheryl & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2012. "Patterns of China's industrialization: Concentration, specialization, and clustering," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 593-612.
    12. Naomi R. Lamoreaux & Daniel M. G. Raff, 1995. "Coordination and Information: Historical Perspectives on the Organization of Enterprise," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number lamo95-1, March.
    13. Chengri Ding, 2013. "Transport Development, Regional Concentration and Economic Growth," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(2), pages 312-328, February.
    14. Zoltan J. Acs & David B. Audretsch, 2008. "Innovation in Large and Small Firms: An Empirical Analysis," Chapters, in: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, chapter 1, pages 3-15, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Diego Puga, 2010. "The Magnitude And Causes Of Agglomeration Economies," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 203-219, February.
    16. Cécile Batisse, 2002. "Dynamic externalities and local growth," Post-Print hal-02139698, HAL.
    17. Shihe Fu & Junjie Hong, 2011. "Testing Urbanization Economies In Manufacturing Industries: Urban Diversity Or Urban Size?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 585-603, August.
    18. Joshua Drucker, 2013. "Industrial Structure and the Sources of Agglomeration Economies: Evidence from Manufacturing Plant Production," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 54-91, March.
    19. Lin, Hui-Lin & Li, Hsiao-Yun & Yang, Chih-Hai, 2011. "Agglomeration and productivity: Firm-level evidence from China's textile industry," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 313-329, September.
    20. Yang, Chih-Hai & Lin, Hui-Lin & Li, Hsiao-Yun, 2013. "Influences of production and R&D agglomeration on productivity: Evidence from Chinese electronics firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 162-178.
    21. Henderson, J. Vernon, 2003. "Marshall's scale economies," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 1-28, January.
    22. Brandt, Loren & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes & Zhang, Yifan, 2014. "Challenges of working with the Chinese NBS firm-level data," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 339-352.
    23. Alwyn Young, 2000. "The Razor's Edge: Distortions and Incremental Reform in the People's Republic of China," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(4), pages 1091-1135.
    24. Lu, Jiangyong & Tao, Zhigang, 2009. "Trends and determinants of China's industrial agglomeration," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 167-180, March.
    25. Henderson, Vernon & Kuncoro, Ari & Turner, Matt, 1995. "Industrial Development in Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(5), pages 1067-1090, October.
    26. Norma M. Rantisi, 2002. "The Competitive Foundations of Localized Learning and Innovation: The Case of Women’s Garment Production in New York City," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(4), pages 441-462, October.
    27. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    28. Anping Chen & Marlon Boarnet & Mark Partridge & Bin R. Chen & Mingqin Wu, 2014. "Industrial Agglomeration And Employer Compliance With Social Security Contribution: Evidence From China," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 586-605, September.
    29. Moulton, Brent R., 1986. "Random group effects and the precision of regression estimates," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 385-397, August.
    30. Zoltan J. Acs, 1992. "Small Business Economics: A Global Perspective," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(6), pages 38-44, November.
    31. Alwyn Young, 2000. "The Razor's Edge: Distortions and Incremental Reform in the People's Republic of China," NBER Working Papers 7828, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    32. Levin, Richard C & Cohen, Wesley M & Mowery, David C, 1985. "R&D Appropriability, Opportunity, and Market Structure: New Evidence on Some Schumpeterian Hypotheses," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 20-24, May.
    33. Shanzi Ke, 2010. "Agglomeration, productivity, and spatial spillovers across Chinese cities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 45(1), pages 157-179, August.
    34. Hu, Cui & Xu, Zhaoyuan & Yashiro, Naomitsu, 2015. "Agglomeration and productivity in China: Firm level evidence," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 50-66.
    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. Fang Wang & Ming-Hua Tian & Zhong-Hua Yin, 2021. "Modern urbanization and industrial upgrading in China: evidence from panel data," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 661-681, April.
    2. Sentao Wu & Xin Deng & Yanbin Qi, 2022. "Factors Driving Coordinated Development of Urban Green Economy: An Empirical Evidence from the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-20, May.
    3. Behr, Andreas & Schiwy, Christoph & Hong, Lucy, 2022. "Impact of Agglomeration Economies on Regional Performance in Germany," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 52(1), May.
    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.

    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. Jordi Jofre-Monseny & Raquel Marín-López & Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal, 2012. "What underlies localization and urbanization economies? Evidence from the location of new firms," Working Papers 2012/9, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    2. Xiwei Zhu & Ye Liu & Ming He & Deming Luo & Yiyun Wu, 2019. "Entrepreneurship and industrial clusters: evidence from China industrial census," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 595-616, March.
    3. 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.
    4. Drucker, Joshua & Feser, Edward, 2012. "Regional industrial structure and agglomeration economies: An analysis of productivity in three manufacturing industries," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 1-14.
    5. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1kv8mtgl748r0ahh12air9erdc is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Shihe Fu & Junjie Hong, 2011. "Testing Urbanization Economies In Manufacturing Industries: Urban Diversity Or Urban Size?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 585-603, August.
    7. Lu, Yi & Ni, Juan & Tao, Zhigang & Yu, Linhui, 2013. "City–industry growth in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 135-147.
    8. Jordi Jofre-Monseny & Raquel Marín-López & Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal, 2014. "The Determinants Of Localization And Urbanization Economies: Evidence From The Location Of New Firms In Spain," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 313-337, March.
    9. Hu, Cui & Xu, Zhaoyuan & Yashiro, Naomitsu, 2015. "Agglomeration and productivity in China: Firm level evidence," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 50-66.
    10. Emanuela Marrocu & Raffaele Paci & Stefano Usai, 2013. "Productivity Growth In The Old And New Europe: The Role Of Agglomeration Externalities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 418-442, August.
    11. 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.
    12. Henri L.F. de Groot & Jacques Poot & Martijn J. Smit, 2007. "Agglomeration, Innovation and Regional Development: Theoretical Perspectives and Meta-Analysis," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 07-079/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    13. William R. Kerr, 2010. "The Agglomeration of US Ethnic Inventors," NBER Chapters, in: Agglomeration Economics, pages 237-276, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Li, Dongya & Lu, Yi & Wu, Mingqin, 2012. "Industrial agglomeration and firm size: Evidence from China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 135-143.
    15. Katiuscia Lavoratori & Davide Castellani, 2021. "Too close for comfort? Microgeography of agglomeration economies in the United Kingdom," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 1002-1028, November.
    16. ZHANG, Hongyong, 2015. "How does agglomeration promote the product innovation of Chinese firms?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 105-120.
    17. Qi Guo & Canfei He & Deyu Li, 2016. "Entrepreneurship in China: The role of localisation and urbanisation economies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(12), pages 2584-2606, September.
    18. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," 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 349-404, Elsevier.
    19. Shihe Fu & Stephen L. Ross, 2013. "Wage Premia in Employment Clusters: How Important Is Worker Heterogeneity?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(2), pages 271-304.
    20. Khaled Thabet, 2015. "Industrial structure and total factor productivity: the Tunisian manufacturing sector between 1998 and 2004," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 54(2), pages 639-662, March.
    21. Ge, Ying, 2009. "Globalization and Industry Agglomeration in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 550-559, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
    • R1 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics

    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:spr:anresc:v:63:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s00168-019-00932-z. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.