Growth and Change最新文献

Urban growth is a dynamic phenomenon influenced and shaped by a multitude of diverse, interconnected factors. Although identifying the most significant driving factors is a prerequisite for forecasting future urban growth, the selection of factors in numerous current studies is subjective. This study conducted a systematic review of the existing literature within the field, utilizing a qualitative content analysis to identify the factors influencing urban growth along with their pertinent indicators. Then, the potential connections among the factors derived from the articles were analyzed using CytoScape. Ultimately, the 51 identified factors were categorized into nine categories, including: accessibility, demographic, economic, environmental, institutional and planning, physical, proximity, social, and topographic factors. This study's primary contribution is a comprehensive, evidence-based typology of urban growth drivers, which can serve as an authoritative reference for researchers and planners.

Optimizing resources allocation at both time and space dimensions, green growth driven by industrial relocation can effectively prevent pollution leakage. Based on a rich Chinese province-industrial panel data during 2008–2022, this article employs a spatial Durbin model to capture the non-linear effects of industrial relocation on environmental pollution and green growth. After a set of robustness tests, results confirm significant spatial spillover effects, the environmental effect of industrial relocation shows a significant U-shaped curve, but the economic effect is an inverted U-shaped curve. Industrial relocation regions indeed achieve de-pollution and move toward high-end production, and the overall pollution leakage is attributed to the relocation of resource-intensive industries. The spatial boundary tests show that pollution leakage can spread over a geographical distance of 1250 km, while the green growth has only radiated to regions with similar economic strength. Besides, investment structure, technological improvement and employment creation are significant transmission pathways, and green growth is main induced by employment creation effect. This article provides important policy implications for orderly industrial relocation and green development.

Migrant entrepreneurship is a vital engine of urban innovation and economic growth, yet its potential is often constrained by institutional barriers. This study investigates the foundational role of inclusive urban public services—closely linked to migrants' rights to survival and development—in supporting migrant entrepreneurial activity. Drawing on recent reforms in China aimed at equalizing urban public services, we find that greater inclusivity in urban public service provision significantly promotes migrant entrepreneurship. Mechanism analyses identify three pathways: inclusive urban public services (i) generate psychological incentives that strengthen migrants' sense of belonging in cities, (ii) encourage migrant households to allocate labor and financial resources to urban areas, and (iii) expand migrants' access to bilateral social networks rich in market opportunities, all of which foster entrepreneurial action. Heterogeneity analyses further show that improvements in urban public service inclusivity not only raise the quality of migrant entrepreneurship but also exert stronger effects in central regions, where fiscal capacity and economic development are more balanced than in eastern or western regions. These findings underscore the substantial economic returns of integrating migrants into formal governance systems and provide broader insights into unlocking migrant entrepreneurial potential in developing countries.

The Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy (LCCPP) represents a key institutional initiative in China to reduce carbon emissions and promote green development, serving as a foundation for achieving green technological innovation (GTI). Existing studies have primarily focused on the low-carbon performance and mechanisms of pilot cities themselves, while overlooking the spillover effects of the policy on in neighboring cities. This study employs a difference-in-differences method to examine the green spillover effects of the LCCPP, focusing on neighboring non-pilot cities of pilot areas. The study finds that the LCCPP significantly improves GTI in neighboring non-pilot cities, primarily through competitive pressure, imitation learning, and financial transmission effects. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the green spillover effects of the LCCPP are more pronounced when neighboring cities are located in the eastern and central regions, have well-developed infrastructure, and exhibit strong green governance capacity. Further analysis shows that the spillover effects of the LCCPP are closely linked to the strength of economic ties between cities. Moreover, the spillover effects exhibit a significant distance decay pattern, with the effective spillover range limited to within 200 km. Our findings offer valuable insights for promoting GTI and accelerating the construction of low-carbon cities.

Existing research on the impact of labor mobility on the welfare of urban native labor has inconsistent findings due to differences in the objective measures of welfare and the relatively homogeneous scale of migration within the samples. We focus on subjective well-being (SWB) as a comprehensive measure of welfare and select China, characterized by significant disparities in labor mobility across cities, as the sample for a study grounded in externality theory. Empirical results derived from microdata of the 2016 China Labor—force Dynamics Survey and corresponding annual city data show that: (1) The relationship between labor force inflow and the SWB of urban native labor in the host city is significantly a U-shaped curve. When the inflow of labor reaches 0.44 times the size of the urban native labor, the SWB of the latter will reach its lowest point. (2) The labor force outflow has no significant effect on the SWB of urban native labor who stayed behind in the origin city. (3) Costs of living, employment opportunities, and working hours play a mediating role in the relationship between labor inflow and the SWB of urban native labor in the host city.

Migrant workers have historically followed a short-term migration pattern similar to that of migratory birds, which hinders their full integration into urban life, both behaviorally and emotionally. Strengthening migrant workers' settlement intentions through social networks is considered the most optimal solution to addressing the social issues arising from large-scale urban-rural circulation. Contrasting with research that evaluates internal migration issues from a macroeconomic policy perspective, this paper examines the role of individual migrant workers' social networks in shaping their settlement intentions within the framework of informal institutions. Utilizing a large dataset from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS), we find that migrant workers with extensive social networks are more likely to settle permanently in cities compared to those with fewer social networks. Importantly, we identify social inclusion and participation in public affairs as key mechanisms through which social networks influence migrant workers' settlement intentions. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that social networks play a particularly significant role in increasing the settlement intentions of first-generation migrants, well-educated migrants, married migrants, and family-based migrants. We subject these results to a series of endogeneity tests and robustness checks, and find that our main conclusion remains consistent and reliable.

This study employs geospatial analysis and social network analysis to reveal the geographical and relational dimensions of complementary technological cooperation among Chinese cities. Furthermore, using a panel negative binomial regression model, we examine the impact of complementary technological cooperation on urban innovation capacity, and compare it with the effects of non-complementary cooperation. Our findings reveal that: (1) The geographical structure of the complementary technological cooperation network has evolved from a “triangular” configuration—centered on Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen—toward a “rhombus-shaped” structure incorporating Chengdu, with a further tendency toward a “hexagonal” spatial pattern. (2) The social structure of the complementary technological cooperation network exhibits a classic “core–periphery” pattern, with the network's core gradually shifting from a dual-core configuration dominated by Beijing and Shanghai to a single-core, multi-centered structure centered on Beijing. (3) Complementary technological collaboration significantly enhances urban innovation capacity and proves more effective than non-complementary cooperation. This advantage stems from the fact that complementary cooperation not only directly improves innovation output capability but also strengthens the technological relatedness density within cities that non-complementary linkages cannot match.

This study examines how institutional innovation programs foster the transition of small businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa from survival to scalable entrepreneurial ventures. Using a mixed-methods framework and 720 region-years of data (2010–2024), we evaluate both direct program impacts and broader ecosystem spillovers through difference-in-differences models, spatial lag analysis, and instrumental variable techniques. Robustness was assessed with placebo tests, entropy balancing, and threshold analysis. The results show that the Boost Africa initiative increased crowdfunding activity by 42.8%, with 36% of the effects spilling over into neighboring regions. Impacts peaked in the third year and were significantly enhanced by mobile money penetration. Sectoral analysis indicates that fintech interventions delivered the highest returns, while equity investments consistently outperformed grants. Methodologically, the study integrates formal (crowdfunding) and informal (mobile money) sector metrics, applies historical missionary settlements as instruments, and quantifies spatial spillovers—offering a novel framework for assessing ecosystem-wide effects. The findings highlight how blended finance, when paired with digital inclusion, can catalyze systemic entrepreneurial growth, providing actionable guidance for optimizing intervention design and timing in emerging economies.