A Theoretical And Empirical Analysis Of The Sizes Of Chinese Cities

Accompanied by the rapid development of the urban economy and the emergence of associated social problems, the increasingly important issue of the scale of cities, should not be neglected. The concept of city size contains two aspects: natural size and economic size, both of which impact the whole city, thus creating the question of how to fix on the optimal size, which has been researched and discussed in great depth.Based on the situation of China, this essay analyzes the industrial structures of the biggest cities, calculating their optimal spatial scales. Moreover, this essay establishes a model to analyze the optimal sizes of urban population, with the use of the WilsonModel and City PRED (Population, Resource, Environment, Development) system from the field of geographic economics. This essay consists of four sections:Chapter 1 is the introduction, pointing out the concept and factors of urban scale, commenting on some main theories on this issue, especially the Lowest-Cost Theory, the Come-Together Economic Theory and the Efficient-City-Size Theory, as well as some other theories such as the Doorsill-Effect Theory, establishing the foundation of this thesis.Chapter 2 enumerates and compares the empirical productions of scholars both abroad and domestic.Chapter 3 focuses on the empirical. Ten of the biggest cities are selected as the objects of analysis, and their scales and industrial structures are researched. While most researches only focus on the scale of urban population, this essay also pays attention to the optimal spatial scales.Chapter 4 is the core of the paper, in which a model and an index system are built on the base of Wilson Model and Urban PRED System. Noticing that urban population can be discriminated as immigrants and endogenic people, this essay dwells on the issue of optimal city size, taking various aspects into account, such as economy, population, resources and so on, thus reflecting the essence of sustainable development.The creative point of this essay lies on the novel introduction of the Wilson Model and PRED system into the research of optimal urban scales, and the discrimination of immigrants and locals, on the basis of which a model and an urban comprehensive potential energy index system are built up. Besides, since most researchers focus on population, this essay uses the Cost-Income Model to calculate the optimal spatial scales of some cities in the country, and presents some helpful results.