Abstract: This paper investigates the spillover effect of government locations on economic growth by exploring more than 180 relocation events of city governments in China. Empirical results demonstrate that government relocations improve regional economic growth measured by night lights. This positive effect decreases with the distance to city governments’ new locations. Government relocations are also found to accelerate urbanization. Potential mechanisms include the changes in land conversion and firm birth patterns in the move-in areas. These results indicate that the relocation of local governments can be an effective place-based policy to improve economic growth and urbanization.

Keywords: Government relocations; Economic growth; Urbanization; Place-based policies.

该文2024年4月发表于行为经济学领域顶级期刊Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization。该期刊为经济与管理学院学术期刊分级方案B+级奖励期刊。论文作者周宁哲为经管学院经济学基地班2019级本科毕业生。

原文链接：https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2024.04.015