Analysis on Endogenous Mechanism of Metropolitan Area in Stimulating the Regional Economic Growth:Based on the Metropolitan Area of Jing-Jin-Ji,Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta

This paper uses the regression discontinuity design to analyze the overall economic performance of the metropolitan area and its endogenous mechanism in spurring the regional economic growth based on the metropolitan area data of Jing-Jin-Ji,Yangtze river delta and Pearl river from 2003 to 2007.It is well-known that the formation of metropolitan area is based on the distance between one area and the central city,so that the distance is the key determinant of whether one area is a part of the metropolitan area or not.As a result,we can compare the samples beside the threshold of metropolitan area to determine the causal relationship among different variables.The empirical result shows that such positive effect of the metropolitan area formation on economic performance of metropolitan area is driven by the Tiebout mechanism and the enhancements of the urbanization rate.Furthermore,the influence of the metropolitan area formation is heterogeneous.Specifically,Beijing cannot act as a growth pole to improve the economic performance of the Jing Jin-Ji area.On the contrary,the area of Yangtze river delta and Pearl river delta have benefited a lot from theirs growth pole.