Which Export Variety Matters for Urban Economic Growth, Related or Unrelated Variety?

Xiaozhen Qin, Shan Li, Weipan Xu and Xun Li
Additional contact information
Xiaozhen Qin: Department of Urban and Regional Planning, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Shan Li: Department of Urban and Regional Planning, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Weipan Xu: Department of Urban and Regional Planning, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Xun Li: Department of Urban and Regional Planning, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 16, 1-19

Abstract: The relationship between export variety and economic growth has been paid much attention in academia. This paper discusses more deeply the relationship between export related and unrelated variety and economic growth, rather than mere export variety. This paper uses the entropy measurement method to measure the level of export variety of Chinese cities and use the concept of “proximity” proposed by Hidalgo to divide the related variety and unrelated variety. Using the panel data of 252 prefecture-level cities in China from 2000 to 2011, we attempt to explore the relationship between export variety, related and unrelated variety and urban economic growth. The empirical results show that it is not export variety as such, but related and unrelated variety that has effects on economic growth. Export related variety has a positive effect on economic growth, while unrelated variety has a negative effect. And there are obvious regional and size differences. The impact of export related and unrelated variety on eastern and coastal cities is greater than that on central and inland cities, and the impact on large-size cities is also greater than that on medium-size cities.

Keywords: export variety; related variety; unrelated variety; urban economic growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4325/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4325/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:16:p:4325-:d:256468

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().