Assessing the Economic Energy Level of the Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Circle: An Integrative Perspective of “Field Source” and “Field”

As a densely overlapping area under the national overarching development strategy, the Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Circle (CCEC) possesses a significant strategic location. However, compared with the other three growth pillars, the economic energy of the CCEC is still at a low level and in urgent need of improvement, which has to be implemented step by step in a systematic manner. At present, the focus remains on the two central cities—Chengdu and Chongqing. In contrast to the traditional evaluation of the regional economic energy level (EEL) solely from the “internal comprehensive development level”, this paper takes an angle on the interdependence and co-existence of “field source” and “field” to construct a preliminary index system which accounts for the “external economic connection level” as well. We then calibrate and validate the proposed model from both statistical and empirical angles. Finally, by optimizing the model, this paper evaluates the EELs of the Chengdu–Chongqing twin cities by fuzzy integrals of comprehensive weights. The results show the following: (1) From the perspective of overall indicators, the EELs of Chengdu and Chongqing have been rising from 2000 to 2018. In 2019, due to deglobalization and the Sino-US trade war, both cities appeared to reach an inflection point. (2) In terms of horizontal comparison, the EELs of the two cities basically coincide with each other, in line with the positioning of Chengdu–Chongqing as the two leading cities in Western China. However, their EELs have been lagging behind those of Beijing, indicating more room for further improvement. (3) From the point of view of sub-indexes, Chongqing has the advantage in the “external economic connection level” while Chengdu has the advantage in the “internal comprehensive development level”. The dislocation and complementarity of Chongqing and Chengdu has become an opportunity to break away from the stiff competition and jointly improve their EELs. (4) By comparing our evaluation with the traditional assessment, we note that the EEL tends to be misestimated if comprehensive factors regarding the “external economic connection level” are not taken into account.