{"title":"From Exclusion to Inclusion: Urban Inclusiveness Assessment and Its Driving Factors in China","authors":"Jing Li, Ziyang Long","doi":"10.1007/s12061-025-09665-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Inclusive urbanization hinges on government’s fiscal strategy and policy orientations. Over the past decade, the Chinese central government has undertaken notable shift in its development goals to achieve inclusive urbanization, from exclusive public service provision to equalization of urban–rural basic public services. This study seeks to examine local government’s fiscal strategy and identify the key drivers propelling inclusive urbanization in China. Based on 285 cities of the period 2007 to 2021, we start with the Data Envelopment Analysis to assess the local government’s fiscal performance for urban inclusiveness. The results reveal the spatiotemporal variations and an overall upward trend in urban inclusiveness, with western cities exhibiting relatively higher performance scores. Further, we employ spatial models and find positive neighboring effects of local governments on promoting urban inclusiveness. The regression results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between GDP and urban inclusiveness, while fiscal decentralization and government transfer payments are also found to be strongly associated with inclusiveness. However, the magnitude and direction of these effects vary across regions, likely due to differences in place-based policies and underlying economic structures. These findings underscore the necessity of designing differentiated fiscal policies from higher-level government to local government that account for regional contexts.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46392,"journal":{"name":"Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy","volume":"18 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12061-025-09665-3","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Inclusive urbanization hinges on government’s fiscal strategy and policy orientations. Over the past decade, the Chinese central government has undertaken notable shift in its development goals to achieve inclusive urbanization, from exclusive public service provision to equalization of urban–rural basic public services. This study seeks to examine local government’s fiscal strategy and identify the key drivers propelling inclusive urbanization in China. Based on 285 cities of the period 2007 to 2021, we start with the Data Envelopment Analysis to assess the local government’s fiscal performance for urban inclusiveness. The results reveal the spatiotemporal variations and an overall upward trend in urban inclusiveness, with western cities exhibiting relatively higher performance scores. Further, we employ spatial models and find positive neighboring effects of local governments on promoting urban inclusiveness. The regression results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between GDP and urban inclusiveness, while fiscal decentralization and government transfer payments are also found to be strongly associated with inclusiveness. However, the magnitude and direction of these effects vary across regions, likely due to differences in place-based policies and underlying economic structures. These findings underscore the necessity of designing differentiated fiscal policies from higher-level government to local government that account for regional contexts.
期刊介绍:
Description
The journal has an applied focus: it actively promotes the importance of geographical research in real world settings
It is policy-relevant: it seeks both a readership and contributions from practitioners as well as academics
The substantive foundation is spatial analysis: the use of quantitative techniques to identify patterns and processes within geographic environments
The combination of these points, which are fully reflected in the naming of the journal, establishes a unique position in the marketplace.
RationaleA geographical perspective has always been crucial to the understanding of the social and physical organisation of the world around us. The techniques of spatial analysis provide a powerful means for the assembly and interpretation of evidence, and thus to address critical questions about issues such as crime and deprivation, immigration and demographic restructuring, retailing activity and employment change, resource management and environmental improvement. Many of these issues are equally important to academic research as they are to policy makers and Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy aims to close the gap between these two perspectives by providing a forum for discussion of applied research in a range of different contexts
Topical and interdisciplinaryIncreasingly government organisations, administrative agencies and private businesses are requiring research to support their ‘evidence-based’ strategies or policies. Geographical location is critical in much of this work which extends across a wide range of disciplines including demography, actuarial sciences, statistics, public sector planning, business planning, economics, epidemiology, sociology, social policy, health research, environmental management.
FocusApplied Spatial Analysis and Policy will draw on applied research from diverse problem domains, such as transport, policing, education, health, environment and leisure, in different international contexts. The journal will therefore provide insights into the variations in phenomena that exist across space, it will provide evidence for comparative policy analysis between domains and between locations, and stimulate ideas about the translation of spatial analysis methods and techniques across varied policy contexts. It is essential to know how to measure, monitor and understand spatial distributions, many of which have implications for those with responsibility to plan and enhance the society and the environment in which we all exist.
Readership and Editorial BoardAs a journal focused on applications of methods of spatial analysis, Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy will be of interest to scholars and students in a wide range of academic fields, to practitioners in government and administrative agencies and to consultants in private sector organisations. The Editorial Board reflects the international and multidisciplinary nature of the journal.