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Relationship between social economic agglomeration and labor productivity of core cities in Northeast China

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Abstract

Dalian, Shenyang, Changchun and Harbin are the four core cities which play an essential role in terms of promoting the economic development in Northeast China. In this paper, the impact of urban agglomeration on labor productivity is explored by making comparisons among these four cities. The model used for analysis is a classical model derived from previous studies. Some indicators, such as population density and economic density, were selected to examine the impact of urban agglomeration on the labor productivity based on the time-series data for the four cities from 1990 to 2007. The four main conclusions are: 1) The promotion from the growth rate of population density on the growth rate of labor productivity is limited. 2) The negative relationship exists between the growth rate of employment density and the growth rate of labor productivity. 3) Agglomeration effect exists in the four cities, the highest one is Dalian, Shenyang takes the second place, followed by Changchun and Harbin, and the predominant promotion exerted on the labor productivity is the output density.

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Correspondence to Qingshan Yang.

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Foundation item: Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41071088), National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 08BJY056)

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Zhang, P., Yang, Q. & Zhao, Y. Relationship between social economic agglomeration and labor productivity of core cities in Northeast China. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 22, 221–231 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-012-0522-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-012-0522-4

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