Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Population agglomeration in Chinese cities: is it benefit or damage for the quality of economic development?

  • Green Development and Environmental Policy in China: Past, Current and Future
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of population agglomeration on urban economic development quality in various cities of China. The results show that population agglomeration significantly contributes to the improvement of urban green total factor productivity by increasing population diversification, promoting knowledge spillovers, and reducing pollution emission intensity. Moreover, we find that population agglomeration in type II big cities and type I large cities significantly improves green total factor productivity, while the impact of population agglomeration in metropolises and mega-cities on green total factor productivity is not significant. On the one hand, type II big cities and type I large cities are in the period of rising economic development, the population has not yet reached saturation, and there is still a large demographic dividend space. On the other hand, excessive population agglomeration also brings about “urban diseases” such as population congestion and traffic congestion, especially in the metropolises and mega-cities. Finally, using data on producer services and its sub-sectors, we identify a more significant driving effect of high-end talent agglomeration on green total factor productivity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Not applicable.

References

  • Acs Z, Sanders M (2021). Endogenous Growth Theory and Regional Extensions. In: Fischer, MM, Nijkamp, P (eds) Handbook of Regional Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 615-634. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-60723-7_13

  • Alesina A, Ferrara EL (2001) Who trusts others? J Public Econ 85(2):207–234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alesina A, Harnoss J, Rapoport H (2016) Birthplce diversity and economic prospersity. J Econ Growth 21:101–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andreoni J, Levinson A (2001) The simple analytics of the environmental Kuznets curve. J Public Econ 2:269–286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnott R, Kraus M (1998) When are anonymous congestion charge consistent with marginal cost priceing. J Public Econ 67:45–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arrow KJ (1962) The economic implications of learning by doing. Rev Econ Stud 29(3):155–173

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aslesen HW, Isaksen A (2007) Knowledge intensive business services and urban industrial development. Serv Ind J 27(3):321–338

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barro RJ (1991) Economic growth in a cross section of countries. Q J Econ 106(2):407–443

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brownstone D, Golob TF (2009) The impact of residential density on vehicle usage & energy consumption. J Urban Econ 1:91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brulhart M, Sbergami F (2009) Agglomeration and growth: cross country evidence. J Urban Econ 65:48–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers RG, Chung Y, Färe R (1996) Benefit and distance functions. J Econ Theory 70(2):407–419

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen SY (2009) Energy consumption, CO2 emission and sustainable development in Chinese industry. Econ Res J 4:41–55 (in Chinese)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen SY (2010) Green industrial revolution in China: a perspective from the change of environmental total factor productivity. Econ Res J 11:21–34 (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Chung YH, Färe R, Grosskopf S (1997) Productivity and undesirable outputs: a directional distance function approach. J Environ Manage 51(3):229–240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ciccone A, Hall R (1996) Productivity and the density of economic activity. Am Econ Rev 86(1):54–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Combes P-P (2000) Economic structure and local growth: France, 1984–1993. J Urban Econ 47(3):329–355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crozet M, Koenig P (2008) The cohesion vs. growth tradeoff. Metalurgia Int 15(12):76–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixit A (1973) The optimum factory town. Bell J Econ 4:637–654

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duranton G, Puga D (2004) Chapter 48 - Micro-Foundations of Urban Agglomeration Economies, In: Henderson JV, Thisse J (eds) Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, vol 4. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 2063-2117. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1574-0080(04)80005-1

  • Easterly W, Levine R (1997) Africa’s growth tragedy: policies and ethnic divisions. Q J Econ 112(4):1203–1250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fan M, Yang P, Li Q (2022) Impact of environmental regulation on green total factor productivity: a new perspective of green technological innovation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29: 53785–53800. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19576-2

  • Grilliches Z (1979) Issues in assessing the contribution of research and development to productivity growth. Bell J Econ 10(1):92–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hao Y, Song J, Shen Z (2022) Does industrial agglomeration affect the regional environment? Evidence from Chinese cities. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(5):7811–7826

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson JV (2003) The urbanization process and economic growth: the so-what question. J Econ Growth 8(1):47–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holden E, Norland IT (2005) Three challenges for the compact city as a sustainable urban form: household consumption of energy & transport in eight residential areas in the greater Oslo region. Urban Studies 12:2145–2166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hong L, Page SE (2001) Problem solving by heterogeneous agents. J Econ Theory 97(1):123–163

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Hoogendoorn S, Van Praag M (2012) Ethnic diversity and team performance: a field experiment. Bonn: IZA Discussion Paper Series, 6731

  • Jones CI (1995a) R & D-based models of economic growth. J Polit Econ 103(4):759–784

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Jones CI (1995b) Time series tests of endogenous growth models. Q J Econ 110(2):495–525

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kremer M (1993) Population growth and technological change: one million BC to 1990. Q J Econ 108(3):681–716

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li J (2009) Learning effect, congestion, regional division of labor and agglomeration. China Econ Q 3:787–812 (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucas RE Jr (1988) On the mechanics of economic development. J Monet Econ 22(1):3–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nanere M, Fraser I, Quazi A et al (2007) Environmentally adjusted productivity measurement: an Australian case study. J Environ Manage 85(2):350–362

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Qiu S, Liu X, Gao T (2017) Do emerging countries prefer local knowledge or distant knowledge? Spillover effect of university collaborations on local firms. Res Policy 46(7):1299–1311

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romer PM (1990) Endogenous technological change. J Political Econ 98(5 Part 2):S71–S102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romer PM (1987) Growth based on increasing returns due to specialization. Am Econ Rev 77(2):56–62

    Google Scholar 

  • Romer PM (1986) Increasing returns and long-run growth. J Polit Econ 94(5):1002–1037

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Rothbard MN (2009) Man, Economy, and State. Auburn: Ludwig von Mises Institute

  • Sbergami F (2002) Agglomeration and economic growth: some puzzles. Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott AJ (2006) Creative cities: conceptual issues and policy questions. J Urban Aff 1:1–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shen J, Chen C, Yang M, Zhang K (2019) City size, population agglomeration and productivity: evidence from China. Chin World Econ 27(1):110–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan K, Su CW (2021) Urbanization and carbon emissions: a panel threshold analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28(20):26073–26081

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tang J, Zhong S, Xiang G (2019) Environmental regulation, directed technical change, and economic growth: theoretic model and evidence from China. Int Reg Sci Rev 42(5–6):519–549

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uzawa H (1965) Optimum technical change in an aggregative model of economic growth. Int Econ Rev 6(1):18–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu Y, Li X, Tao C, Zhou X (2022) Connected knowledge spillovers, technological cluster innovation and efficient industrial structure. J Innov Knowl 7(3):100195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang X, Borland J (1991) A microeconomic mechanism for economic growth. J Polit Econ 99(3):460–482

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuan H, Zou L, Feng Y, Huang L (2022) Does manufacturing agglomeration promote or hinder green development efficiency? Evidence from Yangtze River Economic Belt, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20537-y

  • Zhang C (2020) Skill diversity of cities and entrepreneurship. Reg Stud 54(3):403–414

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang C (2019) The Chinese mosaic: cultural diversity and creative cities. J Reg Sci 59(2):214–227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhong S, Xiong Y, Xiang G (2021) Environmental regulation benefits for whom? Heterogeneous effects of the intensity of the environmental regulation on employment in China. J Environ Manage 281:111877

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou X, Liu J, Zheng X (2016) Incomplete information, search cost and balanced wage - measuring the incomplete information of labor market of migrant workers in Guangdong Province. China Econ Q 15(01):149–172 (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71473134).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Applied Economics, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Shanghai, 200020, China

    Xiaoxin Guo

  2. School of Customs and Public Administration, Shanghai Customs College, Shanghai, 201204, China

    Min Deng

  3. Economic Research Institute on Special Economic Zone, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China

    Xingan Wang

  4. School of Economics, Institute for China Common Prosperity Research, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, 314001, China

    Xiaozhang Yang

Authors
  1. Xiaoxin Guo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Min Deng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xingan Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Xiaozhang Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Xiaoxin Guo: conceptualization, methodology, funding acquisition, and writing—review and editing and validation. Min Deng: conceptualization, project administration, formal analysis, data curation, and writing—original draft. Xingan Wang: data curation and writing original draft. Xiaozhang Yang: conceptualization, writing—review and editing and validation, and supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaozhang Yang.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Guo, X., Deng, M., Wang, X. et al. Population agglomeration in Chinese cities: is it benefit or damage for the quality of economic development?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 10106–10118 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-25220-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-25220-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation