Effects of Polycentricity on Economic Performance and Its Dependence on City Size: The Case of China

Bindong Sun, Tinglin Zhang (), Wan Li and Yan Song
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Bindong Sun: Research Center for China Administrative Division, Shanghai 200241, China
Tinglin Zhang: Research Center for China Administrative Division, Shanghai 200241, China
Wan Li: Business School, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China
Yan Song: Department of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3140, USA

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: Polycentric planning strategies have often failed to achieve the expected effects. The ensuing uncertainty associated with the desirability of polycentric strategies is also reflected in the early literature which offers no clear conclusion about whether the polycentricity affects economic performance and how. This paper aims at offering a clear conclusion about it, especially its dependence on city size. Against this backdrop, we conceptualize polycentricity as a process of reclustering after decentralization to reevaluate its impact on performance. To this end, we use the city proper level Chinese Economic Census (2004, 2008, and 2013) and apply a fixed-effects panel model, the results of which show that the dependence of the urban economy on spatial structure is contingent on city size. More specifically, both decentralization and clustering (and therefore the polycentric structure) facilitate economic performance only when cities reach a certain size. We use our findings as the basis for outlining an emergent research agenda for urban polycentricity.

Keywords: polycentricity; city size; economic performance; optimal city size; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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