Analysis On The Total Factor Productivity And Its Influencing Factors Of The Three Major Metropolitan Areas In China

The metropolitan area is a high-level urban spatial form that breaks through its own regional scope and radiates to the surrounding areas after the development of a large city to a certain stage.In the overall layout of China's new urbanization planning,the metropolitan area is not only the core component of the urban agglomeration,but also an important support for the coordinated development of various types of cities and small towns.When evaluating the development level of the metropolitan area,we should not just measure it in terms of the size of the land and the total economic volume,but analyze it from the perspective of efficiency so as to find out problems existing in the development of the metropolitan area.This paper first defines the spatial scope of the three metropolitan areas of Beijing,Shanghai,and Guangzhou by setting clear division criteria.Based on this,it uses the method of DEA-Malmquist index to calculate and decompose the total factor productivity index of Beijing,Shanghai,Guangzhou metropolitan areas and the total 23 cities included from 2006 to 2016.The calculation results show that the total factor productivity indexes of the three major metropolitan areas are all less than 1,indicating that the total factor productivity is showing a downward trend.Decomposition data shows that the main reason for the decline in total factor productivity of Beijing metropolitan area is the decrease in technological level,while the decline in the total factor productivity of Shanghai and Guangzhou metropolitan areas is the result of the combined effect of lower technology level and lower efficiency level.In order to further analyze the specific factors that affect the total factor productivity of each metropolitan area,this paper selects six independent variables such as industrial structure,scientific research input,human capital,government behavior,degree of opening-up,and public infrastructure,and conducts an empirical analysis using panel regression model.The empirical results show that for a single city,the interpretation of the total factor productivity by the industrial structure,scientific research input,and public infrastructure variables is significant.For different metropolitan areas,the regression result of industrial structure in the Beijing metropolitan area is significant to some degree;the variables of scientific research input and public infrastructure explain the total factor productivity of the Shanghai metropolitan area significantly;the industrial structure,scientific research input,government behavior,and public infrastructure variables explain the changes of the total factor productivity of the Guangzhou metropolitan area significantly.In the end,based on the results of empirical analysis,this paper proposes policy recommendations such as consummating infrastructure construction,optimizing industrial structure layout,improving soft power,ameliorating scientific research environment,coordinating regional development,and polishing government behavior for the specific conditions of different metropolitan areas.