城市等级与中国地区差距——兼评中国中小规模城市在地区增长中的作用

City Grade and Regional Inequality in China——Assessing the Role of Small and Medium-Sized Cities in Regional Growth in China

本文旨在探析2003—2014年中国中小规模城市对于地区增长的重要贡献。结合专业化理论,在确定城市分析单元的基础上提出中国城市功能的经济分类,进而提出了城市等级指数。对城市等级、城市规模与地区差距之间关系进行分析发现,城市功能专业化通过替代城市规模对城市和区域经济增长起着重要作用,城市等级与城市人口规模积极相关,一些城市的城市规模与城市等级不一致,特别是在中小规模城市中更为突出,城市等级呈现高度的空间异质性。本文最后提出了中小规模城市在缩小地区经济差距和促进区域经济发展中的政策含义。

This paper aims to explore the contribution made by small and medium-sized cities to Chinese regional economic development from 2003 to 2014. After defining the city unit,this paper provides an taxonomy of city function according to the specialization theory and then provides the city grade index. It is found that city function specialization plays an important role in urban and regional economic growth through alternative city size, the relationship between city grade and city population scale is positive, the size of some cities does not match the grade, especially in small and medium-sized cities, and city grade presents high degree of spatial heterogeneity. Finally, some policy implications are put forward in reducing the gap between regions and promoting the development of regional economy for small and medium-sized cities.