Abstract: Urban agglomeration economies are of multi-dimensional nature, and different dimensions of urban agglomerative characters can affect the agglomeration economies. This article builds an analysis framework of urban agglomeration economies including size effect, density effect and structure effect. And then, using panel data of China’s Prefecture-level and above cities between 2006 and 2010, this article studies the three effects. This paper found that in the sample range, although size effect shows a significant inverted U-shape, the result still supports the view of “larger scale, more productivity” because the optimum scale is near the maximum values of the sample, additionally the elasticity is about 1.66%-1.94%. Density effect shows significant inverted U-shape, and the optimum density gauged by total urban population divided by urban built-up area is about 13 thousand people per square kilometers. To structure effect, it shows significant inverted U-shape in the model of product per labor, and it only shows positive relationship in the wage model. The article further conducts a robust analysis and gives some further explanations, and at last, gets some practical enlightenment for China’s urbanization and urban development.
Keywords: Agglomerative Economies Effect; Size Effect, Density Effect, Structure Effect
source:Finance & Trade Economics ,No5,2014