An Empirical Analysis Of Producer Service Agglomeration In Yangtze River Delta Area

This paper uses the data of Yangtze River Delta Area (2004-2008) to measure the agglomeration degree of Producer Service in this area. The research proves that during the period of 2004 and 2008, the producer service in this region exhibits high degree of agglomeration, which is higher than that of the average national level. From the perspective of industry, the most aggregate industries include Traffic, Transport, Storage and Post, Financial Intermediation, Leasing and Business Services. From the perspective of area, Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou shows great concentration of producer services.The paper then utilizes the method of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to make a comparative analysis on the efficiency of highly- agglomerate producer services, including Information Transmission, Computer Services and Software, Financial Intermediation, and Leasing and Business Services among Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. The research shows that the congregated industries in the above areas do not present any sign of decreasing returns to scale. This means that congestion effect has not acted yet in the area. The agglomeration of producer service could produce affirmative effects on the economic growth. However, the efficiency of agglomeration varies among the three regions. The three major industries in Shanghai all demonstrate high efficiency. The Information Transmission, Computer Services and Software industry in Jiangsu is inefficient in terms of scale. It means that the industry should augment the size to improve the efficiency. Zhejiang Province manifests the poorest performance among the three regions. All targeted industries present inefficiency in the area.Finally, the paper analyzes the different influences that different kinds of manufacturing agglomeration exert on the agglomeration of producer service. The paper finds out that the concentration of labor-intensive manufacturing industries does not have significant effect on that of the producer services, and the agglomeration of resource-intensive manufacturing industries helps to foster the agglomeration of producer services. The technology-intensive manufacturing concentration has the most significant influence on that of producer services.