The Double-edged Effect of Urban Agglomeration on Regional Inequality

The Double-edged Effect of Urban Agglomeration on Regional Inequality | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article The Double-edged Effect of Urban Agglomeration on Regional Inequality De Tong, Huiyu Yang, Anping Chen This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4174457/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Urban agglomeration, the trend and main carrier of future urbanization in the world, plays an important role in integrating regional resources and promoting economic growth. In particular, in some countries, urban agglomeration has become a policy tool for high-quality urbanization. However, does urban agglomeration play an equally positive role in reducing regional inequality? Based on theoretical analysis and a quasi-natural experiment with the China’s pilot initiative of national urban agglomeration, we confirm that urban agglomeration policy has the reverse effect of exacerbating intra-city inequality and alleviating inter-city inequality in the early stage, with superposition results not significant on overall regional inequality. However, with the passage of policy exposure, the three types of regional inequality indices show inverted U-shaped changes, but the turning point times vary greatly. Further research finds that government intervention for local competition has a time-differentiated moderating effect on the regional inequality effect of urban agglomeration policy. Finally, we provide evidence-based policy recommendations aimed at maximizing policy benefits of urban agglomeration. Social science/Social policy Social science/Economics Social science/Geography Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files Supplementarymaterials.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4174457","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":292721948,"identity":"f83beddf-7714-47c8-8efa-c7be84dfb307","order_by":0,"name":"De Tong","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA0UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYLACHgYbBgkIk5kY1WAijXQth0nQYs/ee/jFm4rzeZIz0h9/YKiwTmxgP3sAvy0859Is55y5XSwtkWNgwHAmPbGBJy8BvxaJHDNj3rbbifMkchgSGNsOJzZI8BgQoeXfOaCW9AcHGP8Rp8X4MW/DgcTZEgmGDYwNxGg5c8aMcc6x5GLJnjfGDAnH0o3beHLwa2Fv7zH+8KbGLk/iODDEPtRYy/azn8GvBQjYQFGSAGaCSDZC6oGA+QNcyygYBaNgFIwCbAAAAXlCSh1CIxsAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"[email protected]","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"De","middleName":"","lastName":"Tong","suffix":""},{"id":292721962,"identity":"7569738e-985e-45f4-a694-f81b4814e596","order_by":1,"name":"Huiyu Yang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Huiyu","middleName":"","lastName":"Yang","suffix":""},{"id":292721967,"identity":"6b1501d7-566a-4a16-a2f0-b65f3f78e1dc","order_by":2,"name":"Anping Chen","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2085-3863","institution":"Colorado State University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Anping","middleName":"","lastName":"Chen","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-03-27 08:15:17","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4174457/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4174457/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":55955331,"identity":"87b9c27e-b0b8-49e2-aab2-afd4aa3adf3a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-05-06 19:59:24","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1195645,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TheDoubleedgedEffectofUrbanAgglomerationonRegionalInequality.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4174457/v1_covered_1d5fc26b-278b-4084-aa2f-ce295bb172a9.pdf"},{"id":55955093,"identity":"6dfd9368-0f00-4d09-995a-aa10c8a81159","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-05-06 19:51:21","extension":"docx","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":184139,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Supplementarymaterials.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4174457/v1/81b8044a71b8ab9236507f77.docx"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"The Double-edged Effect of Urban Agglomeration on Regional Inequality","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"npj-urban-sustainability","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"npjurbansustain","sideBox":"Learn more about [npj Urban Sustainability](https://www.nature.com/npjurbansustain/)","snPcode":"42949","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/42949/3","title":"npj Urban Sustainability","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"NPJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4174457/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4174457/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Urban agglomeration, the trend and main carrier of future urbanization in the world, plays an important role in integrating regional resources and promoting economic growth. 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