YANG Yong:Agglomeration Density, Diversity and Labor Productivity in China's Tourism Industry

Abstract：Agglomeration density is an important source of tourism industry externalities.In this paper, we use panel data of 31 provinces from 2001 to 2012 and related econometric methods to analyze the effect of tourism industry agglomeration density on labor productivity of different types of tourism firms.The empirical results show that, tourism industry agglomeration density has significant positive effect on labor productivity of such tourism firms as star-rated hotel and travel agency, verifying the Verdoorn effect in tourism industry.The research also finds that per capita capital stock of each kind of tourism firms has significant effect on their labor productivity, while the per capita capital stock of all of tourism firms does not have significant effect on labor productivity of different kinds of tourism firms, and the diversity of tourism industry has negative effect on labor productivity of travel agencies.These effects are contrary to theoretical expectation and can be expressed as “productivity paradox”.Based on deep analysis of these findings, this paper provides policy suggestions.

Key words： Agglomeration Density    Labor Productivity    Verdoorn Effect    Productivity Paradox

source:Finance & Trade Economics ,No.2,2015