Urban Services Growth in China: The Influence of Institutional Environment Factors

Abstract

Urban services played increasing important role in China’s economy. The economic marketization and internalization reform had greatly improved China’s institutional environment, which contribute significantly to urban services growth. However, the effects of institutional environment factors on urban services growth are practically neglected. Therefore, to answer what are the institutional environment factors and how their effects on urban services growth in China, the paper selected urban services marketization and openness (FDI) level as institutional variables. Basing on data of 2009-2013 from 286 cities, the hierarchical multiple regression techniques was used to evaluate the effects of institutional factor. The findings indicated that both services marketization and openness level had significantly positive effects on urban services growth. In addition, it was found that a preferential policy was also important in services growth. This had policies implications that the government should implement strategies towards a more balanced urban services growth with specific priority on strategies to improve the urban services marketization and their openness level.