Human Capital,FDI,Spatial Externalities and Economic Growth Performance in the Urban Agglomeration of the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River

Based on the extended Solow growth framework,and using spatial Durbin model,the paper carried out empirical analysis of factors influencing the economic growth of 40 cities in the urban agglomeration of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River( UAMYR) over the period 2001- 2012. The findings are: significant positive impacts of human capital and FDI on the local city's growth exist,among which FDI effect increases over time,while spatial spillovers of human and FDI on growth present negatively; after controlling spatial effects,it still shows β conditional convergence in economic growth of UAMYR although the speed of convergence is slower; significant and increasing spatial competitive effects i. e. negative spatial externalities exist between the growth of cities and the inflow of FDI raises the effects; labor growth has no significant impacts on local cities' economic growth though it produces positive spatial externalities. The results here suggest important policy implications for UAMYR to promote coordinated development.