Author(s): DU Min, LIU Changquan, China Population and Development Research, Rural Development Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Pages: 44-56
Year: 2014 Issue:  6
Journal: Population & Economics
Keyword:  agglomeration effects; city growth; new economic geography; technological externalities; pecuniary externalities;
Abstract: To learn the driving force of the cities’ growth is fundamental for market mechanism to play decisive role in urbanization and urban systems optimization. This paper first constructs singleregion and multi-region urban growth models incorporating technological and pecuniary externalities,then to check and verify the effects of agglomeration economies on China’s cities growth by using a panel data of 261 cities between 2000 and 2011. Results show,technological externalities measured by city population have U-shape relation with the growth rate of urban population,but most cities lie on the left side of the curve,which means urban population growth rates go down while cities grow larger; technological externalities measured by city population density have a statistically insignificant inverse U-shape relation with urban population growth rates; pecuniary externalities measured by market potential have significant positive effects on the growth rate of urban population;wages and unemployment rate,which decide the expected income in traditional migration theories,have significant effects on city growth.