The Research Of The Spatial Synergy Effects Among Cities Of Different Scale Level On The Basis Of Industrial Structure Complementarity

In this paper, an econometric model is built for reflecting the synergy effect ofcity scale level and industrial structure complementarity on economic development onthe basis of agglomeration economy theory and industrial relevance theory. Theexistence and strength of inter-city industrial structure complementary benefits ismeasured by observing whether there is co-development between the upstreamindustry and the downstream industry of geographical neighboring cities. Severaldummy variables representing city scale level are introduced for completing theinvestigation of the synergy effect of city scale level and industrial structurecomplementarity on economic development.The empirical results based on a panel dataset of286prefecture-level cities for2003-2011shows that, in addition to the city of4million more population, thedifferences in the industrial structure between cities and their neighboring cities havenot reached the threshold that makes the industrial structure complementaritybenefits happen. The problem of industrial structure convergence in cities of1,000,000-4,000,000population is most serious. The cities with a population of lessthan500,000inhabitants have complementary industrial structure compared toneighboring cities of a distance from50km to100km, manufacturing there alsobenefits from producer services of neighboring cities of a distance within100km. Thedevelopment of manufacturing in500,000-1,000,000population cities is promoted byproducer services in neighboring cities of a distance within150km. While producerservices in cities nearby of a distance within150km play an effectively positive roleon the agglomeration of the manufacturing in1,000,000-4,000,000population cities,the economic development of the cities at this scale level has been suppressed byneighboring cities of a distance between150km to200km because of convergency inthe industrial structure. To cities having a4million more population, its low-grademanufacture has shown a tendency to shift to the cities nearby, the development of itsproducer services has been pushed by manufacturing of neighboring cities of adistance within250km, the agglomeration of their manufacturing has been improvedby producer services of neighboring cities of a distance from50km to300km.Manufacturing and producer services both have tended to gather in larger cities. Therehas existed stably cooperative relationship between manufacturing and producer services, the effects of manufacturing on producer services vary with the city scalelevel. In addition, producer services located in small urban areas are more affected bymanufacturing than that in metropolitan areas, while manufacturing located inmetropolitan areas are more susceptible to producer services than that of small urbanareas. Therefore, cities of different scales should arrange their industrial developmentorder according to their development stages, and rationalize their industrialcomposition. Specifically, small-sized cities should attract producer services byraising the agglomeration of manufacturing, while large-sized cities should considerproducer services as a powerful engine for manufacturing’ transformation andupgrading.