The Differences between County,County-level City and Municipal District in the System of Administrative Divisions in China

Administrative division is an important means of political power reorganization and management,resource integration and optimal allocation,which profoundly shapes the spatial layout of urban development in China.To clarify and compare differences between counties,county-level cities and municipal districts is the primary premise for the study of administrative division and urban development.This paper analyzes the institutional differences between counties and county-level cities,as well as counties,county-level cities and municipal districts,from the aspects of organizational structure,urban construction planning,land management,finance,taxation and public services.The research shows that the establishment of counties,county-level cities and municipal districts adapt to different levels and stages of economic and social development,and the conversion from county to county-level city and the conversion from county(or county-level city)to municipal district are both important transformation ways to change their administrative systems,which has different management system and operation pattern.At the same time,the transformation of county-level administrative region is also a“double-edged sword”,we should think about the administrative system as a whole to decide whether it should be adjusted,and effectively respond to the actual needs of local economic and social development.

Administrative division system changes and urbanization in China

s—This paper ana1yses the relationship between the administrative division system changes (ADSC) and the urbanization process in China, especially in Guangdong Province since the 1980s. It points out that there are three high tides in ADSC since the 1980s relevant to the changes of economic development. The guiding principle for ADSC is to give local government incentives by transferring more administrative powers to them and bringing along regional development by central city. This paper also discusses problems existed and future prospectives.

Evaluation of regional water resources carrying capacity based on binary index method and reduction index method

Based on the regional water resources carrying capacity(WRCC)evaluation principles and evaluation index system in the National Technical Outline of Water Resources Carrying Capacity Monitoring and Early Warning(hereafter referred to as the Technical Outline),this paper elaborates on the collection and sorting of the basic data of water resources conditions,water resources development and utilization status,social and economic development in basins,analysis and examination of integrity,consistency,normativeness,and rationality of the basic data,and the necessity of WRCC evaluation.This paper also describes the technique of evaluating the WRCC in prefecture-level cities and city-level administrative divisions in the District of the Taihu Lake Basin,which is composed of the Taihu Lake Basin and the Southeastern River Basin.The evaluation process combines the binary index evaluation method and reduction index evaluation method.The former,recommended by the Technical Outline,uses the total water use and the amount of exploited groundwater as evaluation indices,showing stronger operability,while the latter is developed by simplifying and optimizing the comprehensive index system with greater systematicness and completeness.The mutual validation and adjustment of the results of the above-mentioned two evaluation methods indicate that the WRCC of the District of the Taihu Lake Basin is overloaded in general because some prefecture-level cities and city-level administrative divisions in the Taihu Lake Basin and the Southeastern River Basin are in a severely overloaded state.In order to explain this conclusion,this paper analyzes the causes of WRCC overloading from the aspects of basin water environment,water resources development and utilization,water resources regulation and control ability,water resources utilization efficiency,and water resources management.

The Significance of Geographical Factors in Genealogy to Language Research--Taking Liao’s Audio-visual Genealogy as an Example

The geographical information reflected in a traditional genealogy mainly has two aspects.On the one hand,it is the administrative division,human geography,and other general environmental conditions of the ethnic group.On the other hand,it points to the specific origin and migration of family members in the family tree.In addition to affecting the formation and evolution of language,these factors will also affect the development trend of language behavior by promoting the psychology of people’s geographic identity.From these data,we find that geographic factors in the genealogy have a non-negligible relationship with the geographical spread of the language of the genealogy.

Administrative Division Adjustment and Housing Price Comovement:Evidence from City-County Mergers in China

Interregional housing price comovement is a stylized fact worldwide.This study explores how it is affected by administrative division adjustment.We exploit city-county mergers in China as a quasi-natural experiment to construct a difference-in-differences strategy for causal identification.Based on monthly housing price data for districts(counties)in China from 2010 to 2019,we find that city-county mergers significantly improve correlations in housing prices between the merged county and the urban district.This effect is more obvious in cities with a large economic gap between merged counties and urban districts,located in the central and western regions,and with lower administrative hierarchies(non-provincial-capital cities).The mechanism test shows that the impact of city-county mergers on housing price comovement results mainly from integrating housing demand rather than integrating housing supply,like the unified land supply policy that local government implements in the new administrative scope after mergers.The results are helpful in understanding housing price comovement from the view of regional integration and provide clear policy implications for housing market regulation in China.

Administrative division adjustments and stock price comovement:Evidence from the city–county mergers in China

Under the background of Chinese market segmentation,whether governmentled administrative division adjustments can promote regional economic integration is a practical issue.Taking interregional firms’stock price comovement as a micro measurement of regional integration,this paper investigates the regional integration effect of administrative division adjustments,i.e.,city–county mergers.We find that stock price comovement between county-level and municipal district-level firms in the merged counties and municipal districts significantly improve after city–county mergers,particularly in regions with a higher degree of market segmentation and lower degree of marketization.We further find that the increase in stock price comovement caused by city–county mergers emerges from the increase in comovement of real activities between firms in the merged counties and municipal districts.Taken together,our results suggest that government-led administrative division adjustments effectively promote regional integration.

Study on administrative division reform of China’s small and medium-sized cities in the urbanization process

Throughout the world,urbanization has been basically understood to refer to the process of increasing population flow from rural to urban areas.To adapt to this irreversible process,besides eradicating the urban-rural dual household system,China needs to accelerate the building of administrative system in small and medium-sized cities,which will enable them to absorb more migrants from rural areas,and thereby help ease the burden on large cities,and forge a sensible urban system.According to the statistics in this paper,by 2050,China’s urbanization rate will reach around 80%.This calls for as many as 1,050 small and medium-sized cities,i.e.,those capable of accommodating less than 500,000 residents.Currently,however,there are only 383 cities of that scale in China.Therefore,we need to think hard and clearly about how counties and towns are best developed under the urbanization drive,how to achieve optimal administrative structure through reclassification and adjustment of different administrative units,and how,in general,to enhance the quality of urbanization in China.

Stages and Characteristics of Metropolitan Administrative Division Adjustment in China Since 1997

Administrative division adjustments(hereinafter referred to as ADA) proceed throughout China's rapid urbanization, especially during the process of metropolitanization. It has become an integral part of the transformation of China's urban and regional governance. Based on an analysis of ADA cases at the metropolitan level since 1997, this paper suggests that the stages and characteristics of ADA in China are closely related to the metropolitanization process. The internal dynamics and external constraints jointly created two stages of ADA at the metropolitan level in China, namely, a first stage from 1997 to 2007 and a second stage from 2008 to now. In the first stage, ADA primarily aimed at turning counties into districts, to meet the metropolis' demands for expansion. In the second stage, local governments laid equal stress on the two approaches of ADA, i.e., turning counties into districts and district restructuring. Such a change corresponded to the diversification of development demands of the metropolitan area. The evolution of ADA from the first stage to the second not only reflects the changing characteristics of metropolitanization at different times, but also demonstrates the viability of ADA as a means to improve the governance structure of the metropolitan area. ADA at the metropolitan level in China since 1997 basically accommodates the development of space and governance in the metropolitan area, which promotes the rapid development of a large metropolitan area.

国家行政区划调整下的城市多中心发展——城市空间转型的政策启示

Polycentric urban development has profound impacts on urban development worldwide.Most studies have identified its complex drivers of social economy and natural condition while ignoring the state-led policy factors.In recent years,China has undergone dramatic administrative division adjustment(ADA)during the process of unique state-led urbanization.However,as a crucial government strategy,the impacts of ADA on urban polycentricity remain unclear.This research investigates the relationship between ADA and urban polycentricity through spatial difference-in-differences models.The results reveal that ADA has contributed to the polycentric urban development in China.Specifically,boundary restructuring has more substantial impacts than hierarchy reorganization.In addition,ADA has significantly promoted urban polycentricity in local cities in central China and neighbouring cities in eastern China,while it has no significant effects in western China.Furthermore,ADA reshapes urban polycentricity mainly by the influencing mechanism of construction land and industrial structure.Policymakers should consider the various ADA’s impacts on urban polycentricity with socio-economic conditions.This research provides a deeper insight into urban spatial transformation with state-led drivers.

行政区划调整的政区位势理论与模型构建——以重庆市为例

There is a lack of basic theory and method to examine the effect of administrative division(AD) adjustment on the regional development. Based on the theory and practice of Chinese AD adjustments, the paper defined the concept of administrative region potential(ARP) and developed the quantitative model to measure the ARP. Then, the model was validated taking Chongqing as an empirical case. The results show that:(1) the ARP consists of energy of position(i.e., geographic space factors) and gravitational potential energy(i.e., administrative levels and management system factors). Administrative division adjustment can change the ARP, thereby changing its path and driving force of regional development.(2) The ARP model of Chongqing city can reflect the effects of administrative division adjustment events on the Chongqing city objectively. Specifically, ARP includes variables of land jurisdiction, human capital level, fixed assets investment capacity, administrative hierarchy of fiscal decentralization and administrative decentralization.(3) The ARP promotion has significant positive influence on the performance of local economic development in Chongqing city.(4) Reasonable AD adjustments will help the region integrate production elements and resources, enhance the political power of the city, improve its ARP, and then promote local economic development. The ARP model is proved to be an efficient way to understand and explain the regional effect of AD adjustment. It provides a new analytical perspective for the planning of AD adjustment in various regions, and can also be used as a practical method for assessing the effects of AD adjustment.

行政区划调整对区域发展的影响

Administrative divisions are the important foundation of national governance and social development,and the adjustment of administrative divisions is a critical way to promote regional coordinated development.Under the background of globalization and regionalization,timely adjustment of administrative divisions is a major step to reconstruct the regional development pattern.In the perspective of regional coordinated development,this paper constructs an Administrative Rank Potential Energy(ARPE)model to explore the mechanisms of administrative division adjustment(ADA)under coordinated regional development based on the theory of regional interaction,spatial field energy model and power exponential function.The results show that:(1)The development potential and influence of an administrative region are closely related to the administrative jurisdiction,administrative resources,and the potential of regional coordinated development.(2)The growth rate of ARPE in the study area from 2010 to 2015 was 20.7% compared to the period 2005 to 2010,and the potential for coordinated development increased to 3.05% from 0.21% before the"cancelling"the prefecture-level city of Chaohu.(3)The measurement results of the usefulness of ADA can not only distinguish the complex impacts brought about by social development,but also accord with real social and economic development conditions.The ARPE focuses on the both regional integrated development and individual development,thereby serving as a reference for explaining and evaluating adjustments to administrative divisions at the macro-and micro-scales.