Research On The Impact Of Suburbanization On The Change Of Suburban Residential And Employment Functions

Suburbanization is a phenomenon that exists in large urban areas during the highly urbanized stage,mainly manifested by the migration of people’s residence and retail,wholesale,manufacturing and other industries and services from the central city to the suburbs.From the perspective of micro-entities,various forms of suburbanization can be attributed to suburbanization of people’s residence and suburbanization of employment.Research shows that,under the market economy mechanism,there is a temporal and spatial separation between residential suburbanization and employment suburbanization in the process of continuous outward expansion of the central city;in terms of the temporal dimension of the suburbanization process,it shows that residential suburbanization is ahead of employment suburbanization;in terms of the spatial dimension,this results in an overall pattern of more residential population growth than employment population growth and more significant residential function in the peripheral suburbs.In the spatial dimension,this results in a functional distribution pattern in which the residential population grows more than the employment population and the residential function of the peripheral suburbs is more prominent.During the transition from planned economy to market economy,with the reform of the housing system and real estate development,the rapid development of residential suburbanization in large urban areas has been promoted,which has led to the upgrading of the residential function of the suburbs faster than the industrial and employment functions,gradually forming a "employment in the central city and residence in the suburbs" relationship.In large urban areas,as the urban radius exceeds the effective commuting distance,some peripheral suburban populations are commuting between the center and periphery,and some peripheral areas are in the non-commuting area with the central city to form a relative work-living balance.This paper focuses on the description of the more typical commuting area,i.e.the spatial connection between the central city and the suburbs in the metropolitan area,draws on Mills’ theoretical model and Clark’s density gradient method to divide Beijing into several circles,analyzes the difference between residential suburbanization and employment suburbanization using the analysis of circles,tests the relationship between the changes in the spatial distribution of residential and employment populations,and explains the factors affecting the changes.The main research contents are as follows.First,the theoretical study analyzes the spatial changes of residential suburbanization and employment suburbanization from the perspective of urban economics.Drawing on Mills’ model of urban spatial structure,we analyze the changes of residential and employment locations within cities and the relationship between them in terms of residential demand,cost of living,transportation costs(including commuting costs),household income levels,and public service levels during suburbanization.The study shows that suburbanization and suburbanization of employment are bound to occur at a certain stage of urban development,and that suburbanization of residence is ahead of suburbanization of employment,and this difference forms a spatial pattern in which the employment function is more prominent in areas closer to the central city and the residence function is more prominent in the peripheral areas of the city.Second,historical studies sort out the relationship between residential suburbanization and employment suburbanization from the development history of suburbanization at home and abroad.Suburbanization in the United States is a natural evolutionary process,while Beijing’s industrial transfer began with policy guidance,its suburbanization process is the result of a combination of government and market forces.The suburbanization processes in Beijing and the U.S.metropolitan areas differ somewhat in terms of timing,dynamics,and process,but both ultimately show a more spatially dispersed residential population than an employed population.Third,the spatial study describes the changing spatial distribution patterns of residential and employment populations in Beijing’s suburbs in terms of the relationship between residential suburbanization and employment suburbanization.The spatial distribution of both residential and employed populations tends to expand,and the spatial distribution of residential population is more dispersed compared to the spatial distribution of employed population.At the same time,unlike the suburbanization process in the United States,it is difficult to distinguish the temporal sequence of changes in the residential and employment populations in Beijing,which is related to the regulation of industrial and residential development by relevant policies.Further analysis of the spatial coordination of residential and employment population distribution shows that the employment population grows faster than the residential population within 5～23 km from the center of Beijing,while the residential population grows faster than the employment population in more distant areas,generally forming a functional distribution in which the employment function is more prominent in the central city and the residential function is more prominent in the peripheral suburbs.In general,the distribution of functions is more prominent in the central city and more prominent in the outer suburbs.Fourth,the empirical study examines the influencing factors of suburbanization by constructing an econometric model to test the influencing factors of changes in suburban residential and employment functions.The test results show that the level of economic development,industrial structure,housing price,income level and public service level are the influencing factors for the change of residential and employment functions in Beijing suburbs.The heterogeneity analysis shows that the factors influencing the change of residential and employment functions in suburban commuting areas and non-commuting areas are generally similar,but the difference is mainly in the income level,which passes the significance test for suburban commuting areas,but does not pass the significance test for suburban non-commuting areas.The possible reason is that the suburban non-commuting areas have exceeded the effective commuting distance,and it is difficult for residents to weigh the income level with the cost of commuting and purchasing a house,and they choose the "employment in the central city and living in the suburban non-commuting areas" mode of living,so the suburban non-commuting areas are in a relatively work-living balance state.From the above study,we can draw the following inspirations.On the one hand,in order to alleviate the "big city disease",we need to allocate more resources to the periphery,improve the living conditions such as infrastructure and public services,liberalize the policy of population movement to the suburbs and rural areas,and encourage outward mobility.On the other hand,in order to alleviate traffic congestion caused by tidal commuting,the opportunities for local employment should be increased,and suburban industrial development should be promoted so as to increase close commuting within the suburbs and move towards a balance of residence and industry.