A Research On The Impact Of Urban Shrinkage On The Local Capacity Of Public Services

Since the reform and opening up of China,the level of urbanisation in China has increased by leaps and bounds,but with the changing social conditions in China,such as an ageing population and a declining fertility rate,the urbanisation process in China has started to see urban contraction in some cities,despite the overall growth trend.Urban contraction often brings about population loss and economic decline,leading to a decline in the level of basic public services in cities.This contradicts the concept of equal access to basic public services for all,as advocated by the State Council in the 13 th Five-Year Plan to Promote the Equalisation of Basic Public Services and the 14 th Five-Year Plan for Public Services.Therefore,there is an urgent need to identify cities with urban shrinkage,analyse the impact of urban shrinkage on local basic public services,identify common problems in basic public services in shrinking cities,and provide suggestions to solve these problems,so as to promote equalisation of public services in shrinking cities.In this paper,we analyse 626 cities across the country,identify shrinking cities,analyse their population loss and regional GDP characteristics,and use the entropy method to establish 22 basic public service evaluation indicators in eight categories,and evaluate the level of basic public service capacity of cities across the country by grouping them into prefecture-level and county-level cities.The results were compared and analysed with the population loss rate and regional GDP characteristics of the corresponding group of shrinking cities,and the following conclusions were drawn: Firstly,the average level of basic public service capacity of cities with urban shrinkage is lower than the national average level of basic public service capacity,and there are gaps in the quality,accessibility and per capita access to public service resources of shrinking cities compared with cities without urban shrinkage.Secondly,the greater the degree of urban contraction,the lower the level of basic public service capacity.Thirdly,local finance has an important impact on the level of local basic public service capacity.A decrease in regional GDP is not directly related to a decrease in the quality of basic public services in cities,but a decrease in regional GDP in county-level cities has a greater impact on basic public services in cities.Suggestions for equalising basic services in shrinking cities in response to the study’s findings: Firstly,the government should change its role to carry out reforms and establish a multi-actor participation mechanism for public services.Secondly,the government should innovate the supply of basic public services,use new technologies such as big data,the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence to drive basic public services and establish evaluation and dynamic adjustment.The third is to increase more the ratio of local financial expenditure on basic public services and improve the public finance system and transfer payment system.