Administrative Hierarchy,Government Favoritism and Size Growth of Cities

Based on the significant difference of China’s cities at different(administrative)hierarchical levels in population growth over the past three decades,this study explains the influence of urban development policies(industrial policies and land policies)on the gap in urban population growth from the perspective of government favoritism.Taking 423 cities during 1990-2015 as samples,this paper selects two indicators,setting up national development zones and turning counties into districts,to represent government favoritism and applies the PSM-DID method.The empirical result shows government favoritism in setting up national development zones and turning counties into districts is conducive to urban population growth and helps generate synergy effects of industrial and land policies.Market potential of cities is an important condition for the effect of government favoritism.The result fi nds that government favors higher-level cities and coastal ones,but overlooks inland medium-and low-level cities,resulting in the shallow U-shaped characteristics of“higher on both ends and lower in the middle”in population growth of cities at different levels.In order to prevent inland medium-and low-level cities from“collapsing”relatively,the government should break its favoritism for high-level cities,transform industrial and land policies from“preference system”to“generalized system of preference”,and put greater favor of inland medium-and low-level cities with certain market potential.