Rethinking the development of “left-behind” places through regional cooperation: A spatiotemporal analysis of counties in Zhejiang, China

IF 7 1区经济学 Q1 DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Habitat International Pub Date : 2025-07-25 DOI:10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103526

Yuanshuo Xu , Jingyuan Li , Yan Wu , Weiwen Zhang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Regional cooperation is a critical governing strategy to reduce spatial disparities. As the manifestation of evolving state spatiality at the city-regional scale, China's approach is characterized by a strong role of the state in orchestrating regional cooperation. However, few quantitative studies examine whether state-led regional cooperation effectively promotes development in the left-behind areas. This study analyzes 34,162 cooperation-related news articles in Zhejiang, China, using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model to categorize cooperation into various forms and fields. The results show the expansion of the regional cooperation network and its alignment with state policy agendas. Both fixed-effects regression and Geographical and Temporal Weighted Regression (GTWR) were applied to reveal the spatiotemporal patterns of regional cooperation on county development. Administrative cooperation boosts growth in less-developed counties by improving local governance capacities, while exchanges among officials show limited economic impact. Integrated planning partnerships may worsen regional inequalities due to the asymmetric politico-economic status of localities. Although industrial development collaborations are slow to yield returns, they can drive long-term growth. The success of cooperation in ecological economies depends on national policy support. Cooperation in public services and transportation fosters county development but may also exacerbate inequalities by facilitating resource outflows. Our findings provide insights for policymakers, emphasizing the need for context-specific strategies that ensure equitable benefits without worsening disparities.

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基于区域合作的“留守”地发展再思考——基于浙江省县域的时空分析

区域合作是缩小空间差距的关键治理战略。作为在城市-区域尺度上不断演变的国家空间的表现，中国的做法的特点是国家在协调区域合作方面发挥了强大的作用。然而，很少有定量研究考察国家主导的区域合作是否有效地促进了落后地区的发展。本研究利用潜在狄利克雷分配（Latent Dirichlet Allocation， LDA）主题模型对中国浙江省34162篇与合作相关的新闻文章进行分析，将合作划分为不同的形式和领域。结果表明，区域合作网络的扩大及其与国家政策议程的一致性。采用固定效应回归和时空加权回归分析方法，揭示了区域合作对县域发展的时空影响格局。行政合作通过提高地方治理能力促进了欠发达国家的增长，而官员之间的交流对经济的影响有限。由于地方的政治经济地位不对称，综合规划伙伴关系可能加剧区域不平等。尽管工业发展合作产生回报的速度很慢，但它们可以推动长期增长。生态经济合作的成功与否取决于国家的政策支持。公共服务和交通方面的合作促进国家发展，但也可能因促进资源外流而加剧不平等。我们的研究结果为政策制定者提供了见解，强调需要根据具体情况制定战略，以确保公平的利益，同时不加剧差距。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Habitat International Multiple-

CiteScore

10.50

自引率

10.30%

发文量

151

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： Habitat International is dedicated to the study of urban and rural human settlements: their planning, design, production and management. Its main focus is on urbanisation in its broadest sense in the developing world. However, increasingly the interrelationships and linkages between cities and towns in the developing and developed worlds are becoming apparent and solutions to the problems that result are urgently required. The economic, social, technological and political systems of the world are intertwined and changes in one region almost always affect other regions.