Government Intervention and the Quality of Urban Agglomeration Development: Analysis Based on Market Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of government intervention on the development quality of urban agglomerations using the three major urban agglomerations in China, namely, Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), and Pearl River Delta, as examples. The comparison shows that different levels of marketization have significant differences on the development quality of urban agglomerations under different levels of central and local interventions. The spatial econometric regression results show that the different effects on the neighboring cities of central government, the local government, and market are different in three urban agglomerations. The important reason for the difference is the restriction of affiliations of administrative regions. The findings of this study are important for gaining insights into the role of central and local government reforms in promoting the enhancement of marketization and thus the quality of development in urban agglomerations.