突破传统行政区划与经济发展——来自城市区界重组的证据

Breaking Traditional Administrative Divisions and Economic Development:Evidence from the Districts Boundary Reorganizations

城市内部行政区划的合理分布和有效组合对要素配置效率以及协调平衡发展具有重要作用。一些城市采用区界重组的方式打破传统行政区划界限、优化城市功能布局,谋求地区经济一体化高质量发展。本文基于市辖区之间的空间边界调整,采用夜间灯光影像数据并构造双重差分模型,评估了这一集约型区划调整的经济效应。研究发现:区界重组显著促进了经济发展,并且对相邻辖区存在溢出效应;相较于辖区细碎和辖区数量不变,辖区整合的政策效应更为明显;辖区整合通过激发边界地带活力、简政惠企和优化资源配置带来经济收益。本文研究为最优辖区规模理论提供了新的证据,同时对于推进新型城镇化建设和城市高质量发展也具有一定政策启示。

The reasonable distribution and effective combination of administrative divisions in a city play an important role in the efficiency of factor allocation and coordinated and balanced development.Since the reform and opening,the administrative division system has assisted China’s urbanization development and achieved remarkable results.However,it has also brought a series of problems,which have become a major constraint hindering China’s further promotion of the new urbanization process.In recent years,the central government has begun to reflect on the traditional urbanization model of the past,which means that they try to limit the expansion of cities and shift to emphasizing the adjustment of intensive administrative divisions.Some cities have begun to adopt the method of boundary restructuring to break traditional administrative boundaries to optimize the urban functional layout by adjusting municipal jurisdictions,thus seeking high-quality development of regional economic integration.This study is based on the adjustment information of urban boundaries within Chinese cities from 2000 to 2020,using nighttime light image data and constructing a differences-in-differences model to evaluate the economic effects of boundary restructuring on a more precise spatial and geographical scale.Furthermore,it focuses on discussing the economic logic of jurisdictional integration.The study results reveal that boundary restructuring has promoted the economic development of jurisdictions,and neighboring city districts have also been positively affected.The growth effect is more pronounced in cities with lower administrative levels and higher market potential.In terms of the dynamic trend of the impact,the promoting effect of boundary restructuring has existed for a long time and continues to strengthen over time.The restructuring of the district boundary has taken the path of intensive development and utilization with a focus on developing areas close to administrative residences.There are differences in the economic effects of different types of boundary restructuring reforms.The integration of jurisdictions has significantly improved the economic benefits.Jurisdictional integration brings economic benefits by realizing the vitality of administrative boundary zones,streamlining government,benefiting enterprises,and optimizing resources,which ultimately promote regional economic development.The findings of this study not only help to shift the development of new urbanization from extensive extension to intensive connotation but also provide new evidence for the theory of optimal jurisdictional scale.It is also conducive to transforming the institutional advantages of China’s administrative division into governance efficiency.Compared with the existing studies,the possible marginal contributions of this study are as follows.First,studying the economic growth effect of urban spatial layout adjustment at the micro boundary level in the city,we enrich empirical evidence on the economic impact of county-level administrative divisions.This study focuses on the restructuring and reform of boundaries between municipal districts,which can cleanly identify the causal effects of the reasonable distribution and effective combination of functional areas in cities on economic development.Second,this study focuses on the quasi-natural experiment of boundary restructuring and systematically sorts and classifies the reform events of boundary restructuring;then,it identifies the economic effects and impact mechanisms of jurisdictional integration.Third,based on high-precision granular data,a geographic information system is used to capture the changes in lighting brightness near the“disappeared administrative boundary”in the merged samples of the two regions,which reverses the boundary effect of economic development and provides a complete picture for understanding the economic logic of jurisdictional integration.In addition,the empirical results provide the following four policy implications.First,to continuously promote the adjustment of administrative divisions and achieve regional connotative growth and development.Second,boundary restructuring should consider the administrative level and market potential of cities to achieve economic growth goals reasonably.Third,adjust the scattered and fragmented administrative divisions to fully leverage the advantages of integrated local governments.Fourth,streamline the institutional mechanisms after the integration of the jurisdiction,and ensure the synchronous transformation of corresponding powers and responsibilities,as well as timely adjustment of the organizational framework.