城市群政策与区域协调发展

周京奎　何昌磊

（南开大学）

摘要：作为新型城镇化的主体空间形态，城市群已成为引领中国特色城市现代化发展的核心引擎，将进一步形塑城市间的协调性和平衡性。本文基于城市网络外部性理论和多维邻近性理论，以分批次实施的国家级城市群政策为准自然实验，选取2012—2022年中国271个地级及以上城市，构建36585×11个城市对面板数据，运用多期双重差分模型，考察了城市群政策对区域协调发展的影响及其作用机制。研究发现，城市群政策促进了区域协调发展。机制分析表明，城市群政策通过推动技术、资本及劳动力要素市场一体化，促进区域协调发展。异质性分析表明，城市群政策对区域协调发展的影响在不同类型城市间呈典型的非对称性特征：在多中心城市间、核心与边缘城市间，城市群政策的促进作用更强；当城市间的行政分割程度差异性越大、发展水平越接近、城市规模越相近时，城市群政策的促进作用越强。本文的研究为增强区域联动发展和深化跨行政区合作提供了政策参考。

关键词：城市群政策；区域协调发展；网络外部性；多维邻近性；要素市场一体化

作者简介：周京奎，南开大学经济学院教授、博士生导师，天津，300071；何昌磊，南开大学经济学院博士研究生，通信作者。

基金项目：国家社会科学基金重大项目“中心城市科技创新带动城市群协同创新与高质量发展研究”（22&ZD129）

引用格式：周京奎，何昌磊. 城市群政策与区域协调发展［J］. 经济与管理研究，2026，47（10）：3-18.

Urban Agglomeration Policy and Coordinated Regional Development

ZHOU Jingkui, HE Changlei

(Nankai University, Tianjin 300071)

Abstract: As the primary spatial form of new urbanization, urban agglomerations have become the core engine driving the modernization of Chinese cities, further shaping the coordination and balance among cities. Grounded in theories of urban network externalities and multidimensional proximity, this paper leverages the phased implementation of the national urban agglomeration policy to construct a city-pair panel dataset comprising 271 prefecture-level and above cities in China from 2012 to 2022. It employs a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model to examine the relationship between this policy and coordinated regional development.

The findings indicate that the urban agglomeration policy promotes coordinated regional development. Mechanism analysis confirms that the promoting effect operates by fostering the integration of technology, capital, and labor markets. Furthermore, the coordinating effect of urban agglomeration policies exhibits distinct asymmetries across cities: stronger effects are observed among polycentric, core, and peripheral cities. The promoting effect is amplified by greater heterogeneity in administrative fragmentation, greater similarity in development levels, and greater similarity in city sizes. To this end, collaborative governance of urban agglomerations should be advanced by region and development stage; efforts to build a unified national market should be deepened to remove hidden barriers to the flow of factors; and a gradient-empowered multi-centered network should be established to activate the functions of secondary growth poles.

The marginal contributions are threefold. First, this paper constructs a theoretical analytical framework to examine the impact of urban network externalities on coordinated regional development, integrating network externalities into the core logical chain. According to multidimensional proximity theory, dynamic matching mechanisms exist among geographical, institutional, industrial, and cognitive proximities. Together, these shape the diffusion mechanisms of knowledge spillovers, the organizational logic of capital collaboration, and the spatial pathways of labor mobility, thereby providing a more explanatory theoretical foundation for understanding the intrinsic mechanisms. Second, by examining coordinated regional development from a perspective of city pairs, this paper extends the analyses to the level of relative relationships between cities, which can more directly identify dynamic changes in the convergence of disparities, the strengthening of connections, and functional synergy among cities, fully revealing the relational and network attributes of coordinated regional development. Third, this paper systematically examines the overall impact of the urban agglomeration policy on coordinated regional development and identifies policy mechanisms through the integration of technology, capital, and labor markets. Additionally, it comprehensively identifies the heterogeneous boundaries of policy effects. This paper offers references for strengthening coordinated linkages within urban agglomerations and deepening cross-administrative region cooperation.

Keywords: urban agglomeration policy; coordinated regional development; network externality; multidimensional proximity; factor market integration

下载全文