Journal of Geo-information Science ›› 2023, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (5): 982-998.doi: 10.12082/dqxxkx.2023.220614

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Research on the Influence Mechanism of Financial Network Centrality on Urban Economic Growth in China

YANG Yu1(), SONG Futie1,*(), ZHANG Jie2   

  1. 1. School of Business, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
    2. Research Center for China Administrative Division, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
  • Received:2022-08-22 Revised:2022-10-09 Online:2023-05-25 Published:2023-04-27
  • Contact: SONG Futie E-mail:yyu0105@126.com;tsong@ecust.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(41771173);General Project of Shanghai Philosophy and Social Science Planning(2021BJB002)

Abstract:

The development of financial network has profoundly changed the form of knowledge spillover between cities and further affected the level of urban economic growth. The research on the externality of financial network has gradually become a research hotspot in financial geography. With the assistance of the data of headquarters and branches of enterprises in China's financial industry from 2005 to 2020, this paper combines the methods of social network analysis and recursion thought to calculate the centrality of financial network to analyze its spatial and temporal distribution pattern. Meanwhile, we use the OLS model to analyze the influence mechanism of financial network centrality on urban economic growth in China. The study finds that: (1) From 2005 to 2020, the centrality of financial network showed a "core-edge" distribution pattern, but the spatial agglomeration degree of financial network was decreasing. In this paper, with the help of the Core/Periphery algorithm in UCINET software, cities are divided into core and peripheral cities according to the 2020 financial network,and finally 52 cities with core status, such as Beijing, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou, and 239 cities with peripheral status, such as Anshan, Binzhou, and Foshan, are identified. Cities in the eastern region play an important role in the allocation of financial network resources, forming a "core-periphery" pattern with Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen as the core cities and the other cities as the periphery cities; (2) The development of financial network can not only alleviate financing constraints, but also affect urban economic growth by promoting knowledge spillovers under the influence of network externalities. Cities with larger network links and better accessibility have higher levels of economic growth, and the knowledge spillover effect is more dependent on network proximity than location advantage in "place space"; (3) The degree of knowledge spillover promoted by financial network centrality shows spatial heterogeneity, and the core city which plays the role of "knowledge gatekeeper" can obtain greater benefits from network links. Due to the lack of "knowledge gatekeepers", peripheral cities are unable to make full use of external resources, which exacerbates the risk of being at the low end of the value chain and finally leads to the economic growth level of core cities much higher than that of peripheral cities. In the future, we should attach great importance to the construction of financial network and give full play to the driving role of financial network in urban economic growth in China.

Key words: financial network centrality, recursive thought, PageRank index, spatial-temporal pattern, spatial heterogeneity, knowledge spillover, influence mechanism, economic growth