Urban Growth Determinants in the Yangtze River Delta

Basing on the theory of urban growth and the panel data of regional level cities,the paper con-structs a systematic model and does an empirical study to research the city growth of the Yangtze River Del-ta from 1990 to 2010. And the empirical results indicate that:the cities in the Yangtze River Delta presentthe obvious trend of convergence;there exists significantly two-way causality between the population mi-gration and urban agglomeration economy:on the one hand,population migration stipulates the agglomera-tion economy by increasing the local market potential,economies of scale,externalities,and so on;on theother hand,the agglomeration economy attracts a large number of population migration. In order to increasethe development of the Yangtze River Delta,the paper advises to make full use of the market,reduce the in-stitutional limitation and promote the free flow of factors.