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政府推动型城市化会提升域内企业的创新活动吗?——基于“撤县设区”的实证发现与政策思考
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TitleGovernment-driven Urbanization and Firm Innovation——Empirical Discovery from City-County Merger in China  
作者蔡庆丰 陈熠辉 林海涵  
AuthorCai Qingfeng,Chen Yuhui and Lin Haihan  
作者单位厦门大学经济学院 
OrganizationXiamen University 
作者Emailqfcai@xmu.edu.cn;chen_yihui1992@163.com;linhaihan2018@163.com 
中文关键词城市化 撤县设区 企业创新 集聚效应 资源优化配置 
Key WordsUrbanization; City-County Merger; Innovation; Agglomeration effect; Resource allocation optimization 
内容提要20世纪90年代以来,“撤县设区”是我国政府推动型城市化的重要模式,然而这种行政区划调整对于域内微观企业主体行为特别是创新活动的影响却鲜有研究涉及。本文利用1998-2009年的工业企业数据为样本,结合企业专利申请数据,采用更为稳健的面板固定效应模型实证检验了“撤县设区”对域内企业创新行为的影响。研究表明,“撤县设区”后,域内企业的专利申请数量会得到有效提升,这一结论在采用面板工具变量法和安慰剂检验后依然稳健;机制检验表明,“撤县设区”有助于打破区域行政壁垒、促进地区市场融合和减少地方行政干预,通过推动域内经济的“集聚效应”和资源要素的市场化配置,进而促进企业的创新活动。进一步研究发现,“撤县设区”对企业创新活动的影响存在异质性:相比“弱市-强县型”的改革样本,“撤县设区”对企业创新的促进效应只在“强市-弱县型”的样本中才显著;相对于中西部地区,撤县设区只在东部地区才能有效促进企业的创新活动。本文的研究丰富了“撤县设区”对微观企业行为的影响研究,也为政府进一步深化城市化进程和实现地区经济创新驱动提供理论依据和政策参考。 
AbstractUrbanization is considered to be an important driving force for China's economic growth. From 1978 to 2018, China's urbanization rate rose rapidly from 17.9% to 59.6%, covering the urbanization process which Western developed countries realized over a century. In order to accelerate the citifying process against rural economic and social forms, an innovative policy tool has been used, that is to adjust administrative divisions and levels, and rely on the ensuing regional expansion to carry out government- dominated reforms of rural-urban spatial patterns. In this paper, we focus on a unique form of the above-mentioned government-dominated urbanization tool-- “city-county merger”. Since the 1990s, more than 200 counties in China have been integrated into central cities, accelerating the deepening of regional urbanization. However, the potential effect of city-county merger is still obscure, especially regarding the micro-level firm behavior. On the one hand, it promoted the integration of resources and regional market integration through regional market integration and economic factor agglomeration, which has a positive effect on regional economic development and urbanization On the other hand, it leads to the concentration of administrative power in municipal governments, which reduces the enthusiasm for competition among regions; the concurrent disorderly expansion of urban space and the repeated construction of infrastructure caused by the withdrawal of districts have also led to “false urbanization”. Different from the existing literature focusing on regional aggregate indicators, this paper focuses on the micro-firm behavior. We believe that the government-dominated city-county merger will change the government incentives and constraints faced by enterprises within the domain in a short period of time through the supply of resource elements and the change of the competitive landscape between enterprises. In particular, the high-density convergence of various elements in the city provides various conveniences for the company's innovative activities, and it is well-documented that urbanization can promote the technological innovation of enterprises. However, no scholars have yet explored the “jumping” urbanization model of “city-county merger” and its impact on regional innovation activities. This paper exploits the panel data from Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database during 1998 and 2009, combining the patent application data, then using the panel fixed effect model to analyze the impact of the city-county merger on the innovation activities of firms. As it turns out, city-county merger significantly improves the innovation output of firms within the area. In order to address the endogeneity problems, we take the instrumental variable method and the placebo test to estimate again, and the conclusion remains robust. We explain the impact mechanism in two dimensions: economic agglomeration and resource allocation optimization. Our test based on agglomeration economic mechanism shows that after city-county merger, the accumulation of capital, labor and enterprises in the region has realized the “aggregation economy” within the region. Providing resources and talent support, the agglomeration economy has expanded the market size of the relocated areas and strengthened market competition, which has stimulated the innovation power of the company in the intensified market survival and inferiority. The test on the optimal allocation of resources mechanism indicates that the county-level district has weakened the county government's inefficient intervention in the economy. As a result of city-county merger, the inefficient configuration of resources in the domain is reduced, which helps to promote enterprise innovation through optimal configuration of resources within the domain. Therefore, a positive cycle of “removing county-urbanization-enterprise innovation-urbanization” will be formed in the reformed zone. Compared with the existing literature, the contribution of this paper is mainly reflected in the following three aspects: Firstly, the existing research on the impact of the city-county merger is mainly focused on the regional economic aggregate level. This paper uses industrial enterprises as a sample, and analyzes the impact of the city-county merger on the innovation activities of firms with a more robust panel fixed effect model. Secondly, it expands the research on the influence of urbanization and government policies on enterprise innovation: we find that the city-county merger can promote the technological innovation of enterprises within the domain. Finally, from the perspective of urban agglomeration economy and resource optimization allocation, the mechanism through which urbanization could enhance enterprise innovation activities and regional innovation vitality is clarified. The research results of this paper provide a certain empirical evidence for deepening China's urbanization process, promoting market economy integration, transforming the economic development model, and activating the innovation vitality of enterprises.  
文章编号WP1459 
登载时间2020-01-09 
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