The optimal city size has always been a heated topic for debate in China. Given the background of global warming and fossil fuel crisis, it is argued that the issue should be considered from not only the perspective o...The optimal city size has always been a heated topic for debate in China. Given the background of global warming and fossil fuel crisis, it is argued that the issue should be considered from not only the perspective of economic benefits of a city but should also consider the energy consumption efficiency of the city. On the basis of the energy consumption data of 286 cities at the prefectural level and above in Chinese mainland except Lasa, which are obtained from the EU Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research(EDGAR), this paper carries out an empirical analysis on the relationship between the city size and the energy consumption efficiency of the city. Then based on this analysis, the paper further examines the economic benefits, social benefits, and environment quality of cities in different scales, and the findings reveal that large cities with 2 – 5 million population have the highest efficiency in all these aspects.展开更多
文摘The optimal city size has always been a heated topic for debate in China. Given the background of global warming and fossil fuel crisis, it is argued that the issue should be considered from not only the perspective of economic benefits of a city but should also consider the energy consumption efficiency of the city. On the basis of the energy consumption data of 286 cities at the prefectural level and above in Chinese mainland except Lasa, which are obtained from the EU Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research(EDGAR), this paper carries out an empirical analysis on the relationship between the city size and the energy consumption efficiency of the city. Then based on this analysis, the paper further examines the economic benefits, social benefits, and environment quality of cities in different scales, and the findings reveal that large cities with 2 – 5 million population have the highest efficiency in all these aspects.
