Development zones and urban economic performance in China: Direct impact and channel effects

Abstract

Development zones constitute a special type of placebased policy that has been implemented worldwide. As an essential economic development engine, Chinese National Economic and Technological Development Zones (NETDZs) are perceived as a successful example. However, few studies have looked into the channel effects at work in development zones concerning industrialization and urbanization, despite the crucial nature of such effects with regard to sustainable development of development zones. Following a brief description of NETDZs and their theoretical mechanisms with urban economic performance, industrialization, and urbanization, this study used a simultaneous equation model to generate empirical evidence of the impact of the establishment of NETDZs on urban economic performance and its channel effects through industrialization and urbanization. The results confirm that NETDZs exerts a positive and significant impact on urban economic performance, and NETDZs also show indirect influence in urban growth through urbanization. Although significant and positive intermediation of industrialization remains invalid, foreign direct investment and investment in fixed assets are still crucial in Chinese industrialization. Both industrialization and urbanization play an important role in Chinese urban economic 1762

Intellectual property system and urban green innovation: Evidence from China

“…Therefore, the IPP city pilot policy can be regarded as a quasi-natural experiment. Following Autor (2003) and Wang et al (2022), to investigate whether the IPP system reform promotes urban GI, we adopt a generalized DID model as follows:…”

Effect of place-based policy on regional economic growth: A quasi-natural experiment from China’s Old Revolutionary Development Program

“…For example, Ren et al [ 9 ] observe that there is a 25.70% increase in regional economic growth after the Northeast China Revitalization Strategy implementation. Wang et al [ 10 ] find the Chinese National Economic and Technological Development Zones can also promote urban economic development. Jia et al [ 11 ] employ a spatially discontinuous design and conclude that China’s Great Western Development Program contributes 1.6% to the annual GDP growth rate of target regions.…”

“…Moreover, ORDP emphasizes the development of some local special industries, which are important for regional economic growth. For instance, ORDP in Dabie Mountain points out that in the cities of Xinyang and Zhumadian, a national quality inspection center for non-metals and spices should be supported to build [ 10 ].…”

“…However, in empirical studies, no consensus has been reached about place-based policies' effect on the economy. Some studies prove that place-based policies help boost economic development [5,[9][10][11]. While another strand of literature holds the opposite view [4,[12][13][14].…”

EDZs and Firms’ Environment Performance: Empirical Evidence From Chinese Firms

“…Like other place-based programs, EDZs aim to foster agglomeration economies, enhance employment, and attract technologically advanced industrial facilities. A number of studies have analyzed the effect of EDZs on economic growth, such as increasing the number of firms and employment (Cusimano et al, 2021: Givord et al, 2018Zheng, 2021), improving firm productivity (Koster et al, 2019; and industrial land use efficiency (Lu et al, 2020;Sun et al, 2020c), boosting innovation (Zheng and Li, 2020;Liu et al, 2022), fostering agglomeration economies (Wang et al, 2022) and attracting foreign capital (Delimatsis, 2021). Over the past 3 decades, China's economy has grown at an impressive pace by means of various reforms and economic liberalization policies, and EDZs have been widely adopted as a key industrial policy and EDZs accounted for more than 60% of gross national industrial output value and more than 50% of GDP (Bao, 2013).…”