Core-periphery model of urban economic growth: empirical evidence from Chinese city-level data (1990-2006). Paper Presented in The Fourth Joint Economics Symposium of Five Leading East Asian Universities

Abstract: The geographic nature and openness of China since 1990s make it a feasible application of the Core-Periphery (CP) model, which has hardly explained urban systems in existing studies. Using Chinese city-level data from 1990 to 2006, this paper estimates the impact of spatial interactions in China’s urban system on urban economic growth. Our results verify the non-linearity of the CP Model of urban system, present agglomeration shadow in Chinese urban economies. We also find “border effect ” of administrative boundaries among Chinese provinces, which prevents urban economic activities from being absorbed by big cities in other provinces, while limiting inter-city agglomeration