交通基础设施通达性与非中心城市制造业成长:市场势力、生产率及其配置效率

Transportation Infrastructure Connectivity and Manufacturing Industries in Peripheral Cities in China: Markup, Productivity and Allocation Efficiency

交通基础设施建设是地区经济发展的重要政策工具。本文基于企业成长与企业间关系的双重维度,以是否存在生产率溢价为切入点打开市场势力“黑箱”,厘清交通基础设施和企业市场势力、资源配置效率之间的关系。研究发现:高速公路对非中心城市制造业具有显著的生产率溢价效应,能够通过生产率溢价引致的成本路径以及定价能力引致的价格路径共同推动市场势力的提升;伴随着生产率与市场势力水平的提高,生产率离散度与市场势力离散度趋向降低,高速公路通达性对非中心城市制造业资源配置效率优化的促进作用显著;高速公路对市场势力、生产率以及配置效率的影响效应呈现异质性特征,这种异质性主要源于企业性质、行业特性与城市区位等因素差异。本文研究证实,高速公路对非中心城市经济发展具有积极作用,为非中心城市交通基础设施影响效应研究提供了新视角和新证据。

Summary:Transport infrastructure construction is an important policy instrument in regional economic development.The large-scale construction of transportation infrastructure has been an important part of China s economic miracle.Many studies show that transportation infrastructure connectivity can improve urban economic development in general,but its impact on peripheral cities is not examined.Analyzing the impact of transportation connectivity on peripheral cities will not only reduce the decision-making bias caused by heterogeneity among central and peripheral cities,but it will also help us to understand the mechanism through which transportation infrastructure connectivity affects inter-city relations.This insight will improve the quality of regional policies.China s national highway network ranks first in the world and provides a basis for evaluating the effect of highway connections on manufacturing industries in peripheral cities.We use markup and productivity to measure firm development,and take markup dispersion and productivity dispersion as indicators of allocation efficiency.Based on the dual dimensions of firm development and inter-firm relations,we use the productivity premium as the breakthrough point to open the black box of markup,and clarify the relationship between markup,productivity,and resource allocation efficiency.Finally,we prove that improving highway connectivity has a positive effect on manufacturing industries in peripheral cities.Our major findings are as follows.First,highway connections can enhance markup through cost and price channels simultaneously.Specifically,highway connections in peripheral cities can lead to a productivity premium for the manufacturing industry,as the cost channel of the markup increase is effective.At the same time,highway connections have a positive effect on markup,conditional on productivity,indicating that the price channel also contributes to the markup increase.Second,highway connections can reduce productivity dispersion by improving productivity,and markup dispersion shows the same trend as productivity dispersion,indicating that allocation efficiency is also improved.Third,the effect of highway connections is heterogeneous with respect to industrial characteristics and city location.Non-state-owned enterprises,low competition industries,low technology industries,and transport-dependent industries have obvious allocation efficiency responses to highway connections.The main contributions of our study are as follows.First,we construct a unified framework by combining productivity,markup,and allocation efficiency,which integrates both firm development and inter-firm relations,and uses the framework to identify the effect of highway connections on manufacturing industries in peripheral cities,without any assumptions about productivity and markup distributions.Second,we reveal the black box of markup based on the productivity premium,in the absence of price and cost data;hence,the mechanism through which highway connectivity affects manufacturing industrial markup can be identified as the cost and price channels.Third,we evaluate the effect of highway connections on allocation efficiency in peripheral cities based on productivity dispersion and markup dispersion,and additionally analyze the heterogeneity of the effects with respect to industrial characteristics and city location.This extends the policy implications for allocation efficiency optimization.