A Study On The Impact Of The Competition Among Local Governments On High-Quality Economic Development

Recent diachronic research indicates that the constant competition among local governments is one of the essential momentums for the sustained rapid economic growth in China.Currently,promoting high-quality economic development has become an import aspect of Chinese economic construction.As the Chinese economy is now stepping into the stage of high-quality development from that of high-speed development,ideas and methods in such competition should be modified correspondingly.How to utilize the competition among local governments to promote high-quality economic development has long been a question of great interest in managerial and economic studies.This paper systematically analyses the domestic and foreign scholars' research findings about the competition among local governments and high-quality economic development.Based on relevant literature,we constructed an analytical framework that illustrates the impacts of local government competition on high-quality economic development,revealing the manifestation and transmission mechanism of such influences.Using the framework,we analyzed the behavioral patterns and strategic features of Chinese local government competition by building a spatial econometric model.Particularly,we constructed a generalized spatial dynamic panel model that reflects the influence of local government competition on high-quality economic development to analyze the influential mechanism of various competitive patterns: namely,political performance competition,public competition,explicit competition,implicit competition,autonomy competition,and dependence competition.Results indicate that moderate local government competition is contributory to high-quality economic development,while excessive local government competition is detrimental to high-quality economic development.Within the time scope of this research,competition among local governments in our country is generally beneficial for the improvement of the regional economic development quality.Meanwhile,its spatial spillover effect also promotes the high-quality economic development of other regions.This conclusion confirmed that our local government competition has gradually shifted from competition to coopetition,which is a positive developmental status.This research provides a qualitative and quantitative analytical basis for further explorations in the motives of high-quality development in the Chinese economy and improvements of the local governments' competitive behavior.In general,this paper makes contributions in the following aspects.First,we constructed a theoretical analysis framework of the influence of local government competition on high-quality economic development.This framework allows us to clarify the impact and influential mechanism of local government competition on high-quality economic development.Second,based on relevant studies,we depicted the connotations and representations of high-quality economic development and local government competition in depth.Referring to research outcomes in academia and governments,we used index systems to construct comprehensive evaluations of the level of high-quality economic development and the intensity of local government competition.We also applied the global principal component analysis model to the evaluation process on a regional scale.Third,by employing three different types of spatial weight matrix-geographical proximity,output per capita,and foreign direct investment-in the models,we identified the critical features of the influential process.Moreover,using the spatial measurement model,we quantitatively measured the overall impact of local government competition on high-quality economic development.