The Process Of Urbanization In Rural Areas In Zhejiang Province Town Aggregation Economy Empirical Research

Urbanization occurs as countries sectoral composition away from agriculture into industry and as technological advances in domestic agriculture release labor from agriculture to migrate to cities. The notion of urbanization is agglomeration process, in which the economic elements and economic activities are gathering into city. To capture the conception of this process, agglomeration economies are essential. And increasing returns are vital to understand why there are cities. So, based upon micro-foundations of urban agglomeration economies, it is helpful for us to disclose the formation of city hierarchy and urban agglomeration effects. This discussion will reach to some useful conclusions for exploring the distinctive urbanization process in Zhejiang, promoting the development of the whole city hierarchy, optimizing the city size. And also this discussion will deal with how to improve the agglomeration economies and how to release the pressure from agricultural residual population through the development of cities.The results show that within the city hierarchy in Zhejiang, there are too many small cities, lacking large cities that have power to drive other cities economy in the neighborhood. And the urban agglomeration economies can't be exerted completely. Another characteristic of the city hierarchy is that there are so many small towns. The quantity is increasing dramatically, but the quality still needs improving. Because of the size, the agglomeration effects are not obvious in these small towns. The dispersed rural industry in the rural area not concentrating into these small towns discounts the agglomeration economies. The analysis also supports the conclusion that city hierarchy should be in balance. In a reasonable city hierarchy, all large city, middle size city, small city and small town, all of them could develop in coordination.The results have some policy implications for urbanization in Zhejiang. The main issues are that migration restrictions have resulted in many undersized cities and the costs of being significantly undersized are high. Foremost is to free up migration. Second, the development of city hierarchy should go on in coordination and advancing the economic elements agglomerating to cities. Third, small towns plays import role in absorbing rural population, driving the development of rural industry and promoting the rurkl development. So it should bring them into play the role.