Spatio-temporal Evolution Of Intercity Investment In The Yangtze River Delta: Based On Multi-scale Network Analysis

At present,China is in critical period of comprehensively building of a new development pattern and promoting high-quality economic development.In this period,it is more necessary to improve resource allocation efficiency,optimize the spatial distribution of productive forces,and promote the coordination of industrial division and the free flow of elements among regions.Capital is one of the core factors of production in economic growth.Its purposeful flow between regions effectively allocates relatively scarce factor resources.Therefore,the cross-regional allocation optimization of capital elements will become the focus of economic development.A large number of enterprises gather in the city,which has become the main space carrier of its investment and business activities.If the investment between enterprises is projected into the link between cities,the intercity investment network with city as the node is formed in space.Behind it is the continuous flow and reconstruction of capital and enterprise control rights between cities.Driven by economic globalization and technological revolution,capital elements have moved more easily across national boundaries and globally.The Yangtze River Delta,which was influenced by global transnational capital,has become the most active region in attracting foreign capital.The scale and scope of foreign direct investment by local enterprises have continued to expand.Simultaneously,the speed of industrial transfer in the region is accelerated,and the division of labor and cooperation in the area is continuously strengthened.The global,national and regional investment activities in different places are becoming more active,making cities gradually have multi-scale intercity investment function.Hence,there is a need to strengthen the multi-scale research of intercity investment in the Yangtze River Delta to fully understand and grasp the temporal and spatial law of intercity investment and guide the efficient allocation of capital across areas.Under the above research background,this paper studies the spatial structure and evolution of intercity investment in the Yangtze River Delta from 2003 to 2018 from the perspective of multi-scale network analysis based on a multi-disciplinary intersection,multi-level scale nesting,multi-source data,and multiple methods.Given the research topic's interdisciplinary nature,this paper will absorb the theoretical knowledge of enterprise geography,urban geography,economic geography,and international economics.This paper focuses on the intercity investment pattern between the Yangtze River Delta and overseas,the Yangtze River Delta and the whole country,and within the Yangtze River Delta.In this paper,the multi-scale intercity investment network is constructed by using the enterprise investment data and social network analysis method.With the help of the GIS spatial analysis method and scale distribution model analysis method,the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of intercity investment in the Yangtze River Delta are depicted.This paper uses the traditional method combined with spatial Markov chain analysis to reveal the path dependence characteristics of the spatiotemporal evolution of intercity investment and the influence of spatial factors.In this paper,the spatial correlation effects of the same scale and cross-scale are tested using the vector autoregression model and geographic weighted regression model.Besides,the paper chooses the spatial panel measurement model to investigate the dynamic mechanism and economic performance of the intercity investment in the Yangtze River Delta.The thesis is divided into eight chapters to deconstruct and analyze the research topic.Chapter 1 is the introduction,which discusses the background of the thesis,gives the research problems of this paper,clarifies the theoretical and practical significance,and finally introduces the research ideas and contents.Chapter 2 is the research progress and theoretical basis.Based on combing and summarizing the relevant research progress and theory of intercity investment,this work constructs a theoretical analysis framework of the spatial-temporal evolution of intercity investment in the Yangtze River Delta,which integrates geographical process,spatial correlation,dynamic mechanism,and economic performance.Chapter 3 is the preparation for empirical research.It introduces the main data sources of the research object and makes a descriptive statistical analysis on the sample enterprises.The study shows that the Yangtze River Delta attracts more and more foreign-funded enterprises and domestic enterprises from other regions to invest in the area.At the same time,the local enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta have also started the process of globalization,nationalization and localization expansion.On the global scale,they are driven by producer services.On the national and regional scale,they are driven by manufacturing industry,and each scale presents the characteristics of cross-industry diversified investment.Chapter 4 focuses on the geographical process.The results show that the global,national and regional intercity investment networks are in the stage of rapid development,steady development and perfect development,respectively.Intercity investment pattern has initially formed a multi-scale,multi-center,multi-node network structure."Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou-Ningbo" development belt is increasingly prominent.Shanghai,Hangzhou,Nanjing and so on in the Yangtze River Delta gradually play the role of global and national investment and internal radiation.Chapter5 focuses on the spatial effect.The results show that there is significant spatial proximity effect,the same scale spatial correlation effect,and the cross-scale spatial correlation effect in the process of "path dependence and path creation",introduction and going out",and "domestic and foreign double cycle interaction" in the Yangtze River Delta.Chapter 6 focuses on the dynamic mechanism.The results show that globalization,marketization and localization drive the spatial and temporal evolution of intercity investment in the Yangtze River Delta.Still,the main factors affecting the intercity investment level in various scales of cities coexist in common and different.The indirect influence of surrounding cities cannot be ignored.Chapter 7 focuses on economic performance.It finds that the impact of investment network embedding on urban economic growth has multidimensional heterogeneity,that is,the larger the spatial scale of integration,the stronger the promotion of urban economic growth.But over time,the core area benefits more than the peripheral area in the embedding of the intercity investment network.Chapter 8 is the conclusion and prospect.Besides,it puts forward the policy path to promote intercity investment in the Yangtze River Delta from the aspects of the leading direction of intercity investment,double-cycle interaction,environmental construction,space practice,and so on.