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Analyzing Urban Competitiveness Changes in Major Chinese Cities 1995–2008

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Abstract

In this study, a city’s competitiveness is measured by economic, social, environmental and external connectivity components using a sustainable development perspective. The study focuses on the dynamic changes of urban competitiveness of 24 major Chinese cities in the period 1995–2008. A total of 59 indicators are used to measure urban competitiveness consistently in this period. It is found that the overall ranks of the top and bottom cities in terms of economic, social, environmental and external connection competitiveness in 2008 were largely consistent with a few exceptions. In the period 1995 to 2008, the urban competitiveness score was increased by over 98 % in all cities. Although the weak cities have enhanced their urban competitiveness scores faster than the strong cities, it will take a long time for them to raise their ranks among Chinese cities due to their low scores of initial urban competitiveness. Excepting for 7 cities with significant changes in the rank of urban competitiveness, the ranks of other cities changed only slightly, ranging from −3 to +3, showing stable hierarchy among 24 major Chinese cities in the period 1995–2008.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is based on research supported by a research grant from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong SAR (RGC Project No. CUHK449013) and Program for Geographical Modeling and Geo-computation, Focused Investment Scheme of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The data used in this paper partly come from the BOCD Database provided by Universities Service Centre for China Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Resource Management and Research Centre for Urban and Regional Development, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong

    Jianfa Shen

  2. School of Economics, Central University of Finance and Economics, 39 South College Road, Beijing, 100081, China

    Xiaolan Yang

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  1. Jianfa Shen
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  2. Xiaolan Yang
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Correspondence to Jianfa Shen.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Table 4 List of all indicators
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Shen, J., Yang, X. Analyzing Urban Competitiveness Changes in Major Chinese Cities 1995–2008. Appl. Spatial Analysis 7, 361–379 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-014-9114-2

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