Urban Agglomeration Economies and Industrial Energy Efficiency
——An Empirical Analysis Based on Dynamic Spatial Durbin Model
Feng Han, Institute of Politics and Economics, Nanjing Audit University, Phone +86 13975812934, E-mail:
[email protected]
Jiayu Fang, School of Economics and Trade, Hunan University, Phone +86 18273130994, Email:[email protected]
Rui Xie, School of Economics and Trade, Hunan University, Phone +86 18684675789, E-mail:
[email protected]
Overview
With China's economic development has entered a new norm, the effective use of urban industry agglomeration
effect is advantageous to achieve the dual goals of "steady growth, emission reduction". This study expounds
mechanism of the effects of urban agglomeration economies on industrial energy efficiency in theory. On the
basis, we match the firm-level data and panel data of 283 ground and above cities from 2003 to 2010, and use the
method of dynamic spatial Durbin model to estimate the effects of urban agglomeration economies on industrial
energy efficiency.
The paper is organised as follows: After the introduction, the second section gives a brief overview about the
mechanism and hypothesis of urban agglomeration economies on energy efficiency. The third section addresses
the spatial econometric model for the effect of urban agglomeration economies on industrial energy efficiency.
In section four we describe variable measurement, data description and spatial correlation analysis. Section five
offers spatial econometric testing and results. Then, in section six, we perform the empirical results in subdivided
industries on the basis of dynamic Spatial Durbin Model robustness checks that reinforced our findings. In the
final section conclusion and policy implications are derived.
Methods
Dynamic Spatial Durbin Model.
Results
First, whether in the short or long term, the specialization and diversification agglomeration of industries not
play a significant role on the city itself, but significantly reduces the energy efficiency of the neighboring cities.
Second, the "free ride" and "bottom competition" effects of industrial agglomeration on industrial energy
efficiency exceed the "demonstration effect" and "synergistic effect". It has a significant negative spillover effect,
and the long-term effect of this effect is greater than short term.
Third, we investigate the heterogeneity of the effects from the subdivision industry. The results show that the
specialized agglomeration and diversification of the industry in the short and long term do not have an expected
effect on the industrial energy efficiency of the city and surrounding cities, but produce an inhibitory effect in
different degrees instead.
Conclusions
The distribution of manufacturing in China's cities not only has obvious homogeneity (which leads to the
diversity of "large but not strong"), but also forms the two states of lack of specialized agglomeration and overspecialized agglomeration, which leads to no effect of the urban agglomeration economies on the improvement
of industrial energy efficiency.
References
Hou X. S., Zhang Z. Y., Zhou J. X., A Study on the Growth Effect and Affecting Path of China 's Economic
Structure. The Journal of World Economy, 2014, Vol.5, pp.88–111[In Chinese].
Liang Y. M., Dong M. J., Source of China's Economic Growth: An Analysis Based on Nonparametric
Accounting Methods. The Journal of World Economy, 2015, Vol.11, pp.29–52[In Chinese].
Nie H. H., Jiang T., Yang R. D., The Use Status and Potential Problems of the Annual Survey of Industrial Firms
(ASIF) dataset. The Journal of World Economy, 2012, Vol.5, pp.142–158[in Chinese].
Zhang X. L., Has Transport Infrastructure Promoted Regional Economic Growth? With an Analysis of the
Spatial Spillover Effects of Transport Infrastructure. Social Sciences in China, 2012, Vol.3, pp.60–77[in
Chinese].
Abdel-Rahman, H., Fujita, M., Product Variety, Marshall an Externalities, and City Sizes. Journal of Regional
Science, 1990, Vol.30, No.2, pp. 165–183.
Capello, R. Regional Economics, Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN, 2007.
Capello, R., Camagni, R. Beyond optimal city size: an evaluation of alternative urban growth patterns. Urban
Studies, 2000, Vol.37, No.9, pp.1479–1496.
Abdel-Rahman, H., Fujita, M., Product Variety, Marshall an Externalities, and City Sizes. Journal of Regional
Science, 1990, Vol.30, No.2, pp. 165–183.
Capello, R. Regional Economics, Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN, 2007.
Capello, R., Camagni, R. Beyond optimal city size: an evaluation of alternative urban growth patterns. Urban
Studies, 2000, Vol.37, No.9, pp.1479–1496.
Ciccone A. Agglomeration Effects in Europe. European Economic Review, 2002, Vol.46, No.2, pp.213–227.
Cingano F., Schivardi F., Identifying the Sources of Local Productivity Growth. Journal of the European
Economic Association, 2004, Vol.2, No.4, pp.720–742.
Cole, M. A., Elliott, R. J. R., Wu, S., Industrial Activity and the Environment in China: An Industry-level
Analysis. China Economic Review, 2008, Vol.19, pp.393–408.
Combes, P. P., Economic Structure and Local Growth: France, 1984-1993. Journal of Urban Economics, 2000,
Vol.47, No.3, pp.329–355.
Döring T., Schnellenbach J., What Do We Know about Geographical Knowledge Spillovers and Regional
Growth? : A Survey of the Literature. Regional Studies, 2006, Vol.40, No.3, pp.375–395.
Elhorst, J. P., Dynamic Spatial Panels: Models, Methods and Inferences. Journal of Geographical System, 2012a,
Vol.14, No.1, pp.5–18.
Elhorst, J. P., Matlab Software for Spatial Panels. International Regional Science Review, 2012b, DOI:
10.1177/0160017612452429.