政府邻近、公共投资与县域经济发展

Government Proximity,Public Investment and County Economic Development

厘清政府间垂直管理关系,是优化省以下财政体制的重要前提。本文从市县距离这一区位特征出发,基于中国地级市政府驻地迁移改革,构建双重差分模型,识别政府邻近与县域经济发展之间的因果关系。研究发现,政府邻近具有显著的经济效应,并且从动态趋势上看,这一经济效应是持续的而非短期的。机制检验表明,公共投资的增长是政府邻近优势能够实现的重要途径,不仅信息优势提高了市政府对邻近县域投资的力度,与市政府邻近也激励了县域自身公共投资的动力。异质性分析表明,在初始距离近、财政分权程度高以及财政压力小的地区影响更为显著,并且这一经济效应主要体现在第二产业增长上。进一步研究发现,政府邻近对资本及劳动力的带动作用是负向的,对县域经济效率的影响也不明显。但是,当地方制度环境改善时,政府邻近对县域经济效率的带动作用会逐步显现。本文研究将有利于深入理解上下级政府间经济互动的地理诱因,对进一步促进县域经济高质量发展的政策实践具有借鉴意义。

Clarifying the vertical relationship among Chinese local governments is an important prerequisite for optimizing the sub-provincial financial system and empowering them to reduce their burden.The problem of imbalanced economic development among counties in China has always existed.On the one hand,this is reflected in the horizontal imbalance of economic development among counties in regions with different levels of productivity.On the other hand,within the same region,there is also a vertical imbalance in economic development among counties.Specifically,the relative location conditions of counties play a key role in influencing vertical imbalance in development.The relative positional relationship between counties and surrounding economic entities has been a focal point of academic research.In this study,starting with the location characteristic of the distance between counties and municipal governments and based on the increasingly common reform of relocating Chinese government sites,a multi-temporal double-difference model is constructed to identify the causal effect between the proximity of municipal governments on the economic development of counties.The results reveal that(1)government proximity has a significant economic effect,i.e.,a county experiences faster economic growth after obtaining the proximity advantage of the municipal government,and in terms of the dynamic trend,this economic growth effect is sustained rather than short term.(2)The policy effect is heterogeneous,with a significant policy effect for areas with close initial distance,a high degree of fiscal decentralization,and low fiscal pressure.Further,the economic benefits caused by government proximity are concentrated in the growth of the secondary industry.(3)In terms of the impact mechanism,an increase in public investment is an important way to realize the proximity advantage.On the one hand,the proximity of a higher-level government increases the possibility of neighboring counties receiving investment,and on the other hand,proximity to a higher-level government stimulates a county's motivation to develop the economy.(4)We also find that the effect of government proximity on private capital and population is negative and fails to lead to the improvement of county economic efficiency,indicating that the economic benefits of government proximity are mainly driven by capitalintensive industries rather than improvement in efficiency.However,when the regional institutional environment improves,government proximity can promote high-quality county development.Therefore,this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the political triggers of economic interactions between upper and lower levels of government and provides a theoretical basis for promoting high-quality economic development.This study makes three significant contributions to the field.First,we identify the causal effect of government proximity on county-level economic growth from the perspective of spatial distance and deeply analyze the underlying mechanisms of this proximity effect.We expand the existing literature on county-level economic development from the perspective of intergovernmental relations.Second,we utilize rich spatial big data to analyze the influence of government proximity on the behaviors of upperand lower-level governments from the perspective of public investment decision-making at the municipal and county levels.This also provides new micro-level evidence for clarifying the division of powers and responsibilities between upper-and lower-level governments.Lastly,by measuring the efficiency of economic growth driven by public investment through the measurement of county-level total factor productivity and combining differences in institutional environments,we provide theoretical evidence for the high-quality development of counties.