经济分权与中小城市发展——基于撤县设市的政策效果分析

Decentralization and Development of Small and Medium-Sized Cities——An Analysis Based on the Policy of County-to-City Upgrade in China

国家新型城镇化规划要求形成大中小城市协调发展的健康城市体系。本文考察旨在通过经济分权促进中小城市发展的重要政策——"撤县设市"——对地方经济发展和城市化的影响。基于1992—2012年的县级面板数据和双重差分方法,研究发现,1993—1997年发生的撤县设市政策对县市经济发展产生了积极的促进效应,这一效应在本文研究时期的后半阶段更为显著。东部和初始集聚水平更高的地区显示出更强的经济促进效应,而在中西部地区不显著。本文利用异质性地区下的分权模型讨论了政策效果的可能机制。

China has aimed to form a healthy urban system with harmonious development of large, medium and small cities. This paper investigates the effects of a major policy to promote the development of small cities—"County-to-city Upgrade"—on local economic development and urbanization. By exploiting China's county-level panel data and the DID approach, the research finds the upgrade policy implemented between 1993 and 1997 has promoted local economic development, with the effects being most prominent in the second half of research period. The positive impacts are higher in eastern regions and counties with higher agglomeration level, and insignificant in middle and western regions. Under a simple decentralization framework with heterogeneous regions, it discusses the potential channels of policy effects.