Influence Of Economic Globalization On City-Region Structure

The whole world, included the city-region have been deeply changed by the economic globalization. In one hand, the central city linkage between different countries, especially the developed countries are more and more close-knit, which lead the central cities play an more and more important role in the world economic system. In another hand, city-region relationship and structure, especially in China because China is one the most important investment input countries, are also influenced by economic globalization. The economic globalization brings both Opportunities and Threats for Chinese city-regions. There is a "World City" theory system coming up to respond the first tendency. But there is little attention was paid to the second tendency, which leads city-region research theory development in China can't keep pace with times, and more serious, the city-region development in China lace of a long-term, stable and positive guiding policy. It is obviously that we should pay much attention to research the economic globalization influence on city-region level.This dissertation is going to examine the spatial influence of economic globalization on the city-region from three aspects:First, is the influence of economic globalization on the city-region exist? What are the features? Second, which factors have influence on the process of globalization have effect on city-region space? Third, are there any contributions to the development of World City theory system?There are 7 chapters in this dissertation:Chapter 1 is introduction. After a short introduction of background of city-region booming, there is a introduction of definition about Economic Globalization, Urban-Region Structure, FDI Economic Space and Globalizing City Network. Then there is a introduction of dissertation's framework.Chapter 2 is literature review. First, I find the new tendency and hot research areas of produce organization after review the economic globalization theories, including theory of New International division of labor, theory of Global Production Network and theory of New Regionalism. Second, I find that the characteristic of lack of research on the economic globalization influence in the urban space level and lack of research about the city network based on economic in regional level. Third, I find that the tendency to research the city-region but lack of empirical study after review of World City research. It is obviously that my research is necessary in theoretical level.Chapter 3 is research about the FDI economic space and spatial agglomeration. "Mean plus standard deviation" method is used to classify the different type of economic space. The result shows that:(1) The FDI economic space is extending from city center to the suburban and outer suburban district along with the time. Now, the region consist by Waigaoqiao Bonded Area, Zhangjiang High Tech Zone, Jinqiao Export Processing Zone in Pudong New District and region consist by Hongqiao economic and technological development zone, Caohejing Hi-Tech park, Xinzhuang Industry park in West of Shanghai are the main FDI economic center. The Jiading Newtown, Qingpu Newtown, Songjiang Newtown, Nanqiao Newtown and Songjiang Export Processing Zone was the sub FDI economic center. Other suburban and out suburban district are also the FDI economic space. It seems the FDI has been formatting a multicenter system in three level and shows the combining trend in region, especially in the west region of Shanghai. (2) The manufacture industry FDI more likely located in the industry park in suburban and out suburban, and service industry FDI more likely located in city center and new town. Moran Index is used to examine the agglomeration feature of FDI enterprises. The result shows:(1) Before 1990, the significant spatial agglomeration region of FDI are concentrated in city center. In 1990s, the booming of Lujiazui, Waigaoqiao, Zhangjiang and Jinqiao lead Pudong New District rising to the significant spatial agglomeration region of FDI, and area near Hongqiao and Caohejing to be the spatial agglomeration center in suburban region. After 2000, the FDI spatial agglomeration region are concentrated in three center:First center located in Lujiazui. Second center located in the area between Waigaoqiao and Zhangjiang. Third center concentrated in Caohejing and Hongqiao.(2) As to the industrial sector, we can find that there are three main Manufacturer FDI spatial agglomeration centers:First center base on Waigaoqiao, Zhangjiang and Jinqiao in Pudong New District, Second center based on Hongqiao, Caohejing, Xinzhuang in south-west of Shanghai, Third center based on Jiading Newtown in North-west of Shanghai. The service industry FDI agglomeration center is mainly concentrated in the city center and suburban. There are two main service FDI agglomeration belt:First is distributed along the Yan'an Road in the city centre, the other is distributed from Waigaoqiao via Jinqiao to Zhangjiang. It's distribution looks like the character "T". The High Tech industry FDI's location has two centers:one center located in Waigaoqiao, Jinqiao and Zhangjiang, the other center located in the area near Caohejing. Produce service industry FDI's location is similar with the service industry.Chapter 4 is research about influence factors of FDI enterprise location choice. According the location theory and FDI location theory,17 variables which can be divided into three kinds of factors include traditional location factors, institution factors and agglomeration factors was used to examine the mechanism of FDI location choice. Poisson and Negative Binomial Regression model was used because the dependent variable was discrete random variable. The research has found that both market and state have an important role in FDI location and spatial reorganization, and the power of market is raising quickly.Chapter 5 is research on the influence of economic globalization on the regional level. Based on the top 500 Multinational companies and branches data, we use the Network analyze (support by UCINET) to examine the city network structure of Yangtze River delta. The research found that:(1) Shanghai is Primate City of China based on the number of top 500 Multinational companies and branches and the number of top 500 Multinational companies fit the sequence size distribution law. (2) Suzhou and Ningbo replaced Nanjing and Hangzhou to be the Subprime core in the city network and Wuxi, Nantong and Changzhou rising quickly in the globalizing city network system. (3) The network between Shanghai, Suzhou and Ningbo is the Backbone Network of Yangtze River delta and the network between Wuxi, Nantong, Changzhou, Nanjing, and Hangzhou is the Sub-Backbone network of Yangtze River delta. (4) Both market and state have an important role in regional city network reorganization.Chapter 6 is the research about the government role in city-region development in the economic globalization background. First, the research conclude the government actions system include Promoting city strategic position and urban regional integration as a "National Project". Second, we examine the positive effect of "National Project" from the development practice of Shanghai, especially the "Four center construction". Then we discuss the "National Project" has limited use or no use by analyze the analyzing the embeddedness of FDI enterprises and governance of Yangtze River delta. At last, we give some suggestions to the central and local government based on the analysis.Chapter 7 was the conclusions. We answered the three questions at the beginning. (1) It is obviously that economic globalization has a strong influence on the Shanghai-Yangtze River delta, which lead the urban FDI economic space reorganization and Regional city network system restructure. (2) Both market and state have an important role in city-region development. (3) Based on the two conclusion above, the research find that he path way of Shanghai-Yangtze River delta rising to the a World City-Region is neither leading completely by economic globalization, which emphasized by the globalist, nor a completely endogenous process which emphasized by the Regional activists. So, this dissertation has a contribution on enriching and developing the World City system.