"Withdrawing The County To Set District" And Enterprise Export

As a tool for coordinating regional interests,the adjustment of administrative divisions has a great impact on the pattern of regional development.Among them,“Withdrawing the County to set District” has added "acceleration" to China’s urbanization development in the form of urban expansion.It is worth noting that“Withdrawing the County to set District” has not only caused the expansion of factors and the adjustment of administrative power,but also directly or indirectly transmitted this impact to the enterprise level.So,as a policy shock,will “Withdrawing the County to set District” have an impact on the export behavior of enterprises? If so,what is the mechanism of action?This paper first constructs a multi-phase DID model to examine the policy impact,taking the enterprises that experienced the reform of “Withdrawing the County to set District” from 1998 to 2008 as the treatment group.Secondly,a series of robustness tests such as spillover effect and placebo test are carried out,and the research content is expanded from three aspects: heterogeneity of region,ownership and financing constraints,which increases the breadth of conclusions.Finally,the realization path of “Withdrawing the County to set District” affecting the export of enterprises is further studied,mainly focusing on the changes in the corporate policy environment brought about by the weakening of government favoritism and the changes in the degree of distortion of factors under the misallocation of regional resources.The main innovation of this paper is the discovery of a new channel on how “Withdrawing the County to set District”affects exports,which proves from two perspectives that the reduction in exports caused by “Withdrawing the County to set District” is actually not a bad thing,but is conducive to the formation of a more fair and unified policy environment and market environment,thereby promoting a healthier development of export trade.This paper finds that:(1)“Withdrawing the County to set District” significantly reduces the export performance of enterprises,and there is no policy spillover effect;(2)There is obvious regional heterogeneity and enterprise heterogeneity in the inhibiting effect of the withdrawal policy on enterprise exports.Enterprises located in the eastern region are more affected.The decline in the export performance of non-state-owned enterprises or high-financing-constrained enterprises was more pronounced;(3)From the government level,the implementation of “Withdrawing the County to set District” has weakened the policy favoritism and protection barriers from the county government,resulting in an increase in the tax burden on enterprises and a sharp decrease in subsidy revenue,thereby inhibiting the export performance of enterprises;(4)From the market level,“Withdrawing the County to set District” has significantly improved the degree of mismatch in the factor market,especially the distortion of capital,and promoted the integrated development of the market,thereby reducing the phenomenon of "forced" export of enterprises caused by resource mismatch.Based on the above research results,this paper puts forward the following policy implications: firstly,prefecture-level municipal governments should timely assume the responsibility of economic construction of the original counties,coordinate the economic functions of the merged county and other jurisdictions,and radiate more resources to the counties to be withdrawn,avoiding the isolation of the county from the overall development and construction of the city;Second,although the implementation of “Withdrawing the County to set District” has increased the export burden of enterprises,it has also contributed to breaking regional protectionism in trade.In order to better transition,the government can step down policy preferences and provide targeted support for export projects in high-tech and hard-tech fields;Third,the government should further reduce the degree of resource distortion,fully rely on and utilize the advantages of the domestic ultra-large-scale market,and create an integrated domestic market,so as to provide sufficient profit returns for the local development of enterprises,change the current situation of excessive export trade,and cultivate an export competitive environment centered on R&D and innovation capabilities..