A Study on the Impact of China’s Free Trade Zone Construction on the Coordinated Development of Regional Economies in the Context of Institutionalized Openness
Publicado en línea: 17 mar 2025
Recibido: 01 nov 2024
Aceptado: 13 feb 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/amns-2025-0329
Palabras clave
© 2025 Zhiqing Xia et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Solving the problem of unbalanced and insufficient regional development and promoting coordinated regional development is an important way to advance Chinese-style modernization and achieve common prosperity. Promoting the implementation of the strategy of coordinated regional development, strengthening the layout of major regional strategies, the planning of main functional zones and the expansion of the path of new urbanization have pointed out the direction for reconstructing and optimizing the spatial configuration of key productive forces, and constructing a regional economic pattern with strong complementarities and significant improvement in quality and efficiency [1-3].
System is one of the key factors to promote regional coordinated development, and reasonable institutional arrangements can significantly promote the low-cost and high-efficiency allocation of resource elements among regions [4-5]. By building a scientific institutional system, it can ensure that resources are reasonably distributed and effectively utilized between regions, avoid waste and mismatch of resources, and then promote balanced and healthy regional economic development [6-8]. Such an institutional arrangement helps to realize the complementary advantages between regions, promote the overall progress of the economy and society, and promote the coordinated and sustainable development of the region [9-10]. In view of the fact that the traditional drivers of economic growth are declining and the emerging growth forces are still in the cultivation stage, there are both challenges and opportunities for China’s economic development. Efforts must be made to find new growth drivers by deepening reform. The establishment of China’s Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in the context of system-based opening is an important part of deepening reform [11]. FTZs are not only the “testing ground” for comprehensively deepening reform and expanding opening up, but also an important strategic high ground for China to build a new platform for comprehensive opening up and promote institutional innovation, which has an irreplaceable role in leading the coordinated development of the region [12-15]. FTZs have become the front line of China’s economic reform and innovation, leading China’s economy to develop in a higher quality and more sustainable direction.
The construction of China’s Pilot Free Trade Zones (PFTZs) is the main battlefield for promoting high-quality development of trade, and is an important strategy for promoting the transformation and upgrading of trade quality and trade mode [16]. Liu, J., Wang, X. et al. examined the impact of Pilot Free Trade Zones (PFTZs) as well as the influence of economic and operational indicators on the efficiency of ports with respect to a typical Chinese Free Trade Zone (FTZ), and the study showed that the PFTZ factors promote the overall technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency of the ports [17]. Guan, C. et al. analyzed the impact of policies on the structural upgrading of service industry in Guangdong FTZ, and found that the FTZ realized industrial upgrading through imitation or independent innovation, in addition to the policy aspects, the enterprise agglomeration and spatial spillover effect that the FTZ has also had a significant impact on the structural upgrading of service industry [18]. Jiang, Y. et al. found after research that the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone has a positive promotion effect on green total factor productivity and creates great incentives for technological innovation of enterprises, in which the effect produced by the policy is the main driving force of technological progress [19]. Li, S. et al. explored the link between the FTZ policy and the performance of listed companies in ports, and the policy program is conducive to promoting the port scale, labor productivity and management efficiency of listed companies, and then realize the rapid development of the company itself, the impact effect of this mechanism deepens over time, and there are regional differences [20]. Huang, D. et al. used a counterfactual approach to infer the impact of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone (PFTZ) policy on economic growth, and by comparing the difference between Shanghai’s GDP under the counterfactual scenario and the actual scenario, showed that the policy produced a strong economic effect, which helped to further improve China’s investment and trade liberalization [21]. Chen, W. et al. discussed the effect of the establishment of the FTZ on the transformation and upgrading of trade patterns, and found that the FTZ’s effect on the transformation and upgrading of trade patterns was significant, and the extent of this facilitation deepened over time, and the facilitation effect was higher in provincial FTZs than in centrally administered FTZs. upgrading, and found that the effect of trade pattern transformation and upgrading in FTZs is significant, the degree of promotion of FTZs on the transformation and upgrading of trade patterns deepens over time, and the promotion effect is higher in provincial FTZs than in centrally directly managed FTZs [22]. Chen, H. et al. based on empirical data analysis to test the effect of the pilot free trade zone to attract foreign enterprises to enter, the attraction effect of the pilot trade zone policy is significant, but due to the time lag effect of the implementation of the FTZ policy and the gradual improvement of the support policy, which led to a slowdown in the growth of the attraction effect of the recently established pilot FTZs [23]. Fan, G. et al. take the port throughput and the scale of the city’s import and export trade as the indicators to study the impact mechanism of China’s FTZs, and found that the impact of FTZ policies on China’s free trade ports in different regions has obvious differences, which provides a theoretical basis for promoting the high-quality development of ports and the coordinated development of ports and urban economy [24].
In the context of building a double-circle pattern, the role of the FTZ as a pilot zone for opening up and institutional innovation will be given fuller play in the future, and the construction of the Pilot Free Trade Zone will have an indispensable role to play in promoting the coordinated development of the regional economy, with a multidimensional and far-reaching impact. In the context of globalization and regional integration, the FTZ, as a pioneer zone and testing ground for reform and opening-up, has provided new impetus and direction for regional economic development through a series of institutional innovations and policy preferences. The construction of FTZs has demonstrated positive effects in enhancing trade quality, stimulating innovation potential, and promoting social capital investment. These policies will become more significant with the passage of time. First, by cutting trade barriers and streamlining administrative processes, FTZs have facilitated the free flow and optimal allocation of key factors of production such as capital, technology and talent, thereby accelerating the pace of regional economic growth. Secondly, the construction of FTZs plays an important role in narrowing regional development differences and promoting coordinated regional economic development. By establishing FTZs in multiple locations, it can effectively guide the flow of industries and capital to regions lagging behind in development, drive the economic development of these regions, and promote economic complementarities and synergistic progress among regions. In the early stage, China’s open economy mainly relied on export expansion, while in the latter stage, it relied more on the introduction of foreign capital. The preferential policies and superior investment environment of FTZs have become powerful magnets for attracting foreign investment, injecting new momentum into regional economic development. Finally, the construction of FTZs can encourage enterprises to continuously carry out technological and product innovations, and promote the coordinated development of the regional economy by stimulating the innovation effect. Analyzed from a micro point of view, the establishment of FTZs can lead to the triggering of a “competition-driven effect” in the region, and significantly enhance the independent innovation capacity of each region. On the one hand, the FTZ attracts many high-quality enterprises at home and abroad through its unique policy dividends and institutional advantages, thus intensifying the market competition among enterprises; on the other hand, due to the policy preferences of the FTZ, a large number of imported goods can be attracted to the FTZ, which also leads to the increasing substitutability of the same type of goods, which can lead to more refined product differentiation and further promote the market competition. Market competition. Analyzed from a macro perspective, the establishment of FTZs can enhance the region’s innovative and creative capacity through the “spillover effect”. Through trade and investment activities, the establishment of FTZs promotes the agglomeration of various factors of production, while also leading to the spatial spillover of knowledge and technology. The FTZ’s more open environment encourages deeper cooperation between enterprises and accelerates the flow of talents. Accompanied by the circulation of talents among regions, knowledge and technology have also realized high-frequency transfer, exchange and sharing, and this spatial spillover effect promotes the enhancement of production efficiency, innovation capacity and optimization and upgrading of industrial structure in the region, and ultimately provides a strong impetus for the coordinated and balanced development of the regional economy. Based on the above analysis, this paper proposes the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis H1: The construction of the FTZ has a positive and promoting effect on the coordinated development of the city’s economy.
FTZ policies can have a significant impact on regional economic growth and have positive spillover effects on neighboring cities through their implementation. The establishment of FTZs can promote the economic growth of local and neighboring regions through the mechanisms of trade effect, industrial structure upgrading effect, financial effect and technological innovation effect. By promoting trade and investment liberalization, FTZs enhance the openness and international competitiveness of the regional economy. This openness not only enhances the economic vitality within the FTZ, but also has a positive driving effect on the neighboring regions through the extension of supply chains and industrial chains. The spatial spillover effect of FTZ construction also comes from the fact that it strengthens inter-regional physical connectivity and information exchange by improving infrastructure and upgrading logistics efficiency, reducing logistics costs and improving the overall efficiency of the regional economy. This infrastructure connectivity has not only facilitated the flow of goods and services, but also the flow of talent and capital, bringing about industrial upgrading and technological innovations, which, through technological diffusion and knowledge spillover, have had a positive impact on the industrial development and technological upgrading of neighboring regions. This has resulted in the coordinated development of the regional economy. However, the spatial spillover effect of FTZ is not necessarily all positive. In some cases, FTZs may exert competitive pressure on neighboring regions, leading to the redistribution of resources and investment, thus exerting an inhibitory effect on the economic development of neighboring regions. For example, the FTZ may attract investment and talent from neighboring regions, leading to a relative reduction in the development resources of these regions, which in turn affects their economic growth. In addition, the construction of the FTZ could have a negative impact on the region’s environment. On the one hand, FTZs can help improve regional environmental quality by promoting green technology innovation and environmental protection policies. On the other hand, the construction of FTZs may exacerbate environmental pressure in certain regions, especially in the case of ineffective environmental regulation, which may lead to the transfer and spread of pollution. Based on the above analysis, this paper proposes the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis H2: The impact of FTZ construction on coordinated regional economic development has spatial spillover effects.
Theory model
Explained variables. In this paper, the coordinated development of regional economy is set as an explanatory variable. In order to ensure the authenticity and authority of the data to meet the requirements of the study, relevant research results are referred to, and the index system of coordinated regional economic development is constructed from the three dimensions of economic vitality, economic strength and economic structure, and the entropy weight method is used for calculation. As shown in Table 1.
Core explanatory variables. This paper takes the FTZ policy dummy variable as the core explanatory variable, and assigns the value based on the implementation time of the FTZ policy in each region from 2013 to 2022, which is assigned as 1 in the year when the FTZ is set up and its subsequent years, and labeled as 0 in other years.
Control variables. In order to eliminate the influence of other potential factors on the coordinated development of China’s regional economy and improve the accuracy of the results, this paper refers to the existing research literature and mainly chooses the following control variables. Taxation is measured using the logarithm of tax revenue for each provincial and municipal government. The economic aggregate can be regulated by taxation
Index system for coordinated regional economic development
| Name of index | Primary indicators | Secondary indicators | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coordinated development of regional economy | Economic vigor | Total retail sales of social consumption | Ten thousand yuan |
| Local fiscal revenue | Ten thousand yuan | ||
| Value of import and export | Ten thousand yuan | ||
| Economic strength | Per capita gdp values | Yuan | |
| Per capita disposable income | Yuan | ||
| Per capita social consumption and total retail sales | Yuan | ||
| Economic structure | The proportion of the secondary industry in gdp | % | |
| The proportion of the tertiary industry in gdp | % |
Optimizing the industrial structure can address economic imbalances and create equal competition. By distributing taxes fairly and making reasonable adjustments, we can narrow the gap between the rich and the poor and promote rapid economic development. Urbanization, using the number of urban residents as a measure, is logarithmized. Urbanization involves the continued concentration and development of the population in cities, which encompasses the industrial layout, occupational distribution of the population, and the spatial structure of land and regions. While promoting the high-quality development of our economy, urbanization also serves as an important force for the coordinated development of our region. The level of informatization is measured by the logarithm of postal and telecommunication business. Improvement in the level of informatization can promote the development of postal, telecommunication and Internet industries, speed up the flow of information, reduce the cost of communication among enterprises, alleviate the problem of information asymmetry in the market, enhance the efficiency of economic operation, and promote the coordinated development of regional economy. The level of human capital is measured by the ratio of the number of students enrolled in colleges and universities to the total resident population of the region. Only when the human capital and the regional economic development model are compatible, different levels of human capital can fully play their effectiveness and promote the coordinated development of the regional economy. Government intervention, this paper selects the ratio of general public budget expenditure to regional GDP as a measure of government intervention. The government’s involvement in the regional economy is inevitably linked to the economic disparities between its parts, as it is indispensable for the creation of market policies and macroeconomic regulation.
The data sources for this paper include the China Urban Statistical Yearbook, China Statistical Yearbook, EPS data platform, as well as statistical yearbooks of provinces and cities and the National Bureau of Statistics. The definitions of the variables are shown in Table 2.
Variable definition table
| Name | Symbol | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Coordinated development of regional economy | Coordination | Index system for the coordinated development of regional economy |
| Free trade zone construction | Policy | Dummy variable |
| Tax revenue | Taxes | Log of the tax revenue of the provincial and municipal governments |
| Urbanization | Urban | Urban population number is log |
| Information level | Information | Logarithm of the total post and telecommunications business volume |
| Human capital level | Capital | The ratio of the number of college students to the total permanent resident population of the region |
| Government intervention | Government | The ratio of general public budget expenditure to gross regional product |
Given the availability of data, this study focuses on a sample of 300 observations from 30 provinces in China (excluding Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) over a 10-year period from 2013 to 2022. For these data, we conducted descriptive statistical analysis, and the relevant results have been listed in Table 3.
Descriptive statistics
| Variable | Observed value | Mean | Standard deviation | Least value | Crest value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coordination | 300 | 0.226 | 0.137 | 0.0682 | 0.753 |
| Policy | 300 | 0.383 | 0.487 | 0 | 1 |
| Taxes | 300 | 7.402 | 0.866 | 5.165 | 9.286 |
| Urban | 300 | 7.696 | 0.738 | 5.635 | 9.155 |
| Information | 300 | 7.344 | 1.251 | 4.212 | 10.42 |
| Capital | 300 | 0.0216 | 0.00564 | 0.00887 | 0.0436 |
| Government | 300 | 0.250 | 0.101 | 0.107 | 0.643 |
On the basis of existing research, this paper constructs the index system of coordinated regional economic development, adopts spatial measurement method, takes the data of 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2022 as the research sample (based on the availability of data, the experimental design of this paper does not include Tibet), analyzes in depth the impact of the construction of the FTZ on the coordinated development of the regional economy and gives targeted and feasible recommendations to promote the coordinated development of the regional economy.
The first law of geography, as formulated by Professor Waldo Tobler, emphasizes the existence of interconnections between things rather than their isolated existence. This concept provides an important foundation for spatial econometrics, a central task of which is the construction of weighting matrices designed to quantify the spatial correlation between economic variables. Spatial weight matrices generally fall into four categories: economic distance matrices, adjacency matrices, nested matrices, and geographic distance matrices. In this paper, we chose the adjacency matrix as the spatial weights W.
In order to fully consider the influence of spatial factors, on the basis of the basic modeling, this paper further develops the spatial measurement model, in order to achieve the purpose of deeper research on the specific impact of the construction of the FTZ on the coordinated development of the regional economy. The specific model is as follows:
Where:
In this paper, the spatial autocorrelation of the coordinated regional economic development of 30 provinces in China between 2013 and 2022 is examined using the global Moran index. The value of the global Moran index is between -1 and 1. A negative value indicates the existence of negative spatial correlation, while a positive value represents the existence of positive spatial correlation. The results of the global Moran index are shown in Table 4.
The Global Moran Index of the coordinated development of regional economy
| Year | Moran’s I | Z value | P value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 0.185* | 1.888 | 0.059 |
| 2014 | 0.195** | 1.961 | 0.050 |
| 2015 | 0.213** | 2.112 | 0.035 |
| 2016 | 0.230** | 2.243 | 0.025 |
| 2017 | 0.235** | 2.279 | 0.023 |
| 2018 | 0.237** | 2.289 | 0.022 |
| 2019 | 0.265** | 2.511 | 0.012 |
| 2020 | 0.296*** | 2.764 | 0.006 |
| 2021 | 0.303*** | 2.824 | 0.005 |
| 2022 | 0.312*** | 2.884 | 0.004 |
Note: *, ** and *** indicate that the coefficients are significant at the 10%, 5% and 1% levels, respectively.
The global Moran’s index is calculated by the formula:
According to Table 3, it can be seen that the global Moran’s I of the coordinated regional economic development of all provinces in the country is significantly positive and increasing year by year. This means that the coordinated regional economic development of each province has a significant spatial dependence. It can be concluded that the research and analysis using the spatial panel model will be more accurate compared to the general panel model.
In order to assess the spatial relevance of a given region, this paper produces a localized Moran map of coordinated regional economic development. The localized Moran index is calculated by the formula:
For space reasons, only the results for the two years 2013 and 2022 are reported. In the Moran scatter plot in Figure 2, most provinces exhibit the characteristics of H-H agglomeration and L-L agglomeration, which implies that there is a significant agglomeration effect between provinces with a higher level of coordinated regional economic development, as well as between provinces with a lower level of coordinated regional economic development, and the result coincides with the validation result of the global Moran index, indicating that there is a significant local spatial positive correlation characteristic. In view of this, we should fully consider the influence of spatial factors, so we choose to use a spatial econometric model for subsequent analysis.
Localized Moran diagram of coordinated regional economic development in 2013 (left) and 2022 (right)
According to the previous section, the coordinated development of regional economy shows significant spatial correlation, in order to accurately measure the specific direction of the role of the construction of the FTZ in influencing the coordinated development of the regional economy as well as the magnitude of the degree of influence, a spatial econometric model can be established.
First, the LM test is conducted. The spatial correlation of the ordinary static panel regression (OLS) model is analyzed through the use of the LM-Lag test and its robust form, as well as the LM-Error test and its robust form in this test. These tests are used to determine the type of spatial effects so that the appropriate econometric model can be selected. According to the results in Table 5, all four tests rejected the original hypothesis H0, which means that the sample data used in this study are characterized by both spatial lag effects and spatial error autocorrelation. Considering that the spatial Durbin model can be widely regarded as a generalized form of spatial econometric modeling, and at the same time is able to take into account both effects, in view of this, we initially believe that the choice of the spatial Durbin model (SDM) is appropriate.
The LM test
| Test | Statistics | P value |
|---|---|---|
| LM-Lag test | 7.684 | 0.006 |
| Robust LM-Lag test | 19.376 | 0.000 |
| LM-Error test | 8.225 | 0.004 |
| Robust LM-Error test | 19.916 | 0.000 |
Next, a comparison of models is conducted. The spatial lag model (Model 1), the spatial error model (Model 2), and the spatial Durbin model (Model 3) are the three models constructed in this paper. Due to space limitations, this paper only shows a partial set of regression results. From the results of the Hausman test, it can be concluded that all three models passed the test at the 1% significance level and rejected the original hypothesis, which suggests that the fixed effects model is a more appropriate choice. When comparing the applicability of spatial econometric models, Model 3 has the largest Log-likelihood value, which indicates that the fit is optimal under the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM). Therefore, it is more appropriate to choose the fixed effects model of Spatial Durbin. The specific results are shown in Table 6.
Results of the model regression
| Variable name | Model 1 | Model 2 | Model 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Policy | 0.009**(0.003) | 0.006*(0.003) | 0.006*(0.003) |
| Taxes | 0.039***(0.011) | 0.048***(0.011) | 0.043***(0.011) |
| Urban | 0.144***(0.028) | 0.149***(0.028) | 0.149***(0.029) |
| Information | -0.072***(0.009) | -0.069***(0.009) | -0.075***(0.009) |
| Capital | -4.010***(1.051) | -4.011***(1.029) | -4.328***(1.028) |
| Government | -0.223***(0.047) | -0.195***(0.050) | -0.197***(0.053) |
| W*Policy | 0.011*(0.007) | ||
| W*Taxes | -0.059**(0.024) | ||
| W*Urban | -0.076(0.056) | ||
| W*Information | 0.006(0.017) | ||
| W*Capital | 1.170(2.167) | ||
| W*Government | -0.244**(0.095) | ||
| Rho | 0.384***(0.044) | 0.424***(0.061) | |
| Lambda | 0.492***(0.055) | ||
| Log-L | 806.1670 | 803.7324 | 816.3694 |
| Hausman test | 216.79*** | 138.16*** | 197.76*** |
| LR test | 20.40*** | 25.27*** | |
| yearfix | YES | YES | YES |
| idfix | YES | YES | YES |
Note: *, **, *** represent coefficients that are significant at the 10%, 5%, and 1% levels, respectively, with standard errors in parentheses.
The third step involves the LR (likelihood ratio) test. This step aims to validate the spatial Durbin’s fixed effects model to determine whether it can be reduced to a spatial autoregressive model or a spatial error model. According to the data presented in Table 6, the LR test yielded statistics of 20.40 and 25.27, respectively, both values being significant at the 1% significance level, thus rejecting the original hypothesis that the model can be reduced to these two forms. This result further shows that the use of the spatial Durbin model is reasonable and appropriate.
To summarize, this paper chooses the spatial Durbin fixed-effects model to study the impact of China’s FTZ construction on the existence of coordinated regional economic development.
According to the fixed effects results of the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) in Table 6, the coefficient of FTA construction is significantly positive, which means that the construction of FTAs in this province has a positive impact on the improvement of the level of coordinated development of the local regional economy. Further, the coefficient of the spatial lag term of FTZ construction is positive and passes the test at 10% significance level, which reveals that FTZ construction is not only beneficial to the province, but also significantly contributes to the coordinated regional economic development of other provinces. According to the results of regression analysis, the Rho value of this spatial Durbin model is 0.424 and passes the test at the 1% level, and it can be concluded from the data that there exists a significant spatial dependence on the level of coordinated development of the regional economy among provinces in China, and the level of coordinated development of the regional economy in this province can significantly promote the level of coordinated development of the regional economy in other provinces.
Given that the spatial Durbin model is able to explain the spatial economic correlation among provinces, the estimated values of its parameters cannot intuitively reflect the true impact of direct effects and spatial spillover effects. By drawing on the partial differentiation method proposed by LeSage et al. the impact coefficients of the respective variables on the coordinated development of the regional economy can be further categorized into the indirect effect, the total effect, and the total direct effect, thus achieving a deeper understanding of the mechanism of their effects.
According to the demonstration in Table 7, the direct effect, indirect effect and total effect of FTZ construction all show positive values and all pass the significance test. This result clearly indicates that the construction of FTZ in this province not only plays a positive role in promoting the coordinated development of the local regional economy, but also significantly generates spatial spillover effects, benefiting other provinces. The actual effectiveness of FTZ construction in promoting coordinated regional economic development will be underestimated if spatial factors are not taken into account. The rationality and necessity of choosing the spatial measurement model is reaffirmed by this finding. Hypothesis H1 and hypothesis H2 have been verified.
The spatial effect decomposition of the space-time dual fixed effect spatial Dobbin model
| Variable name | Direct effect | Indigo effect | Gross effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Policy | 0.008**(0.004) | 0.023*(0.012) | 0.031**(0.014) |
| Taxes | 0.037***(0.011) | -0.067*(0.035) | -0.030(0.038) |
| Urban | 0.151***(0.029) | -0.015(0.084) | 0.136(0.095) |
| Information | -0.078***(0.009) | -0.041(0.025) | -0.119***(0.028) |
| Capital | -4.420***(1.085) | -1.232(3.293) | -5.652(3.849) |
| Government | -0.233***(0.055) | -0.514***(0.152) | -0.747***(0.176) |
Note: *, **, *** represent coefficients that are significant at the 10%, 5%, and 1% levels, respectively, with standard errors in parentheses.
Among the control variables, the direct effect coefficients of taxation and urbanization are positive and passed the significance test, indicating that the optimization of taxation and urbanization can promote the coordinated development of regional economy, which is consistent with the hypothesis; the direct effect coefficients of the level of informationization and total effect coefficients are significantly negative, and the indirect effect is not significant, because of the constraints of the irrational structure of the system and the imperfection of infrastructure; the direct effect coefficient of the level of human capital is significantly negative. The direct effect coefficient of human capital level is significantly negative, because the human capital level needs to match with the regional economic development mode in order to play the effectiveness of different levels of human capital, so as to promote the coordinated development of the regional economy; the regression coefficients of the three effects of government intervention are significantly negative, indicating that the higher the degree of government intervention is more unfavorable to the coordinated development of the regional economy. The reason for this is that too much government intervention is not conducive to the market giving full play to its self-regulating ability, which will inhibit the vitality of the market economy and is not conducive to the coordinated development of the regional economy.
To ensure the model’s reliability, this paper employs a geographic weight matrix to perform regression based on the original model, which is translated as the inverse of the square of the geographic distance between provinces. The regression results are shown in Table 8, and the core explanatory variables are still significant, indicating that the model is robust. However, due to space constraints, other variables are not repeated here.
The robustness test
| Variable name | Coefficient (geographic weight matrix) |
|---|---|
| Policy | 0.011***(0.003) |
| W*policy | 0.020*(0.012) |
| Controlled variable | Yes |
| Double fixation effect | Yes |
Note: *, **, and *** indicate that the coefficients are significant at the 10%, 5%, and 1% levels, respectively, with standard errors in parentheses.
This paper adopts a spatial measurement method, using panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2022, to study the impact of the construction of FTZs on the coordinated development of regional economy in the context of system-based opening and the spatial mechanism of action. The following conclusions are drawn: first, the construction of FTZs can significantly promote the coordinated development of regional economy; second, the construction of FTZs has a significant spatial spillover effect on the coordinated development of regional economy.
Based on the research conclusions of this paper, this paper puts forward the following suggestions:
First, unswervingly promote the construction of FTZ. The construction of FTZs plays an important role in promoting the level of coordinated regional economic development, and must unswervingly respond to the needs of the national regional development strategy, and through the establishment of free trade zones in different regions, form a new pattern of opening up that is coordinated between the East, the Middle East, the West, and the land and the sea, so as to promote the coordinated development of the regional economy. Second, strengthen cooperation and exchanges in the construction of FTZs. Through the above research, the construction of the FTZ has a positive spatial spillover effect on the coordinated development of China’s regional economy, and the construction of an interconnected and coordinated cooperation mechanism to promote the optimal allocation of resources, give full play to the spillover effect under the role of spatial interaction, and promote the coordinated development of the regional economy. Thirdly, the relationship between the market and the Government should be properly handled. Excessive government intervention will, to a certain extent, limit the market’s ability to regulate itself, leading to the suppression of market economic vitality and adversely affecting the coordinated development of regional economies. In the process of promoting coordinated regional economic development, it is important to clarify the leading role of the market in resource allocation, while prudently defining the functions of the government to prevent its unnecessary involvement in microeconomic activities. The role of the government should be shifted to creating a stable, fair, and transparent business environment, as well as providing the necessary public goods and services to facilitate the effective operation of the market economy. The precise delineation of the functional boundaries between the government and the market will ensure that the two play their respective roles in economic development, complement each other, and work together to create a vibrant and orderly market environment, thereby promoting the coordinated development of the regional economy.
Shandong Province Social Science Planning and Research Project (24CJJJ10).
Qilu University of Technology Key discipline development support project (2024XKY09).