行政区划调整与区县间资源要素配置 ———基于撤县设区政策的实证检验

Administrative Division Adjustments and the Allocation of Resources and Elements Among Districts and Counties: The Empirical Test Based on the Policy of County-to-District Reform

摘要:

行政区划调整是重塑地方政府权能关系的重要政策工具,对于消除行政壁垒、优化区县间资源要素配置的影响日益深刻而广泛。基于2011—2021 年实施“撤县设区”的样本,采用PSM-DID模型,实证检验该政策对区县间资源要素配置的影响。研究结果表明:①在研究时段内,资本、劳动力及整体资源要素错配程度均呈上升趋势。②撤县设区政策显著改善区县间资源要素配置水平,且更多地表现为一种短期效应。异质性分析显示,该政策在东部地区及市场通达性较高和人口规模较大的城市中效果更为突出。此外,“整县设区”相较于“切块设区” 的政策效应更为明显。③机制分析表明,撤县设区通过扩张交通路网、抑制政府间恶性竞争、推动公共服务合理化等途径,有效降低了运输成本,弱化了行政壁垒,改善了市场与制度环境,从而引导资源要素合理流动,促进区县间的资源要素优化配置。基于上述结论,为最大化释放撤县设区的政策红利,未来改革应着力于制度融合、分类施策、长效保障与整区推进,以系统性破除要素流动壁垒,实现区域协调与高质量发展。

Abstract:

Administrative division adjustment serves as a vital policy tool for reshaping the power-responsibility relationships among local governments, exerting an increasingly profound and extensive impact on eliminating administrative barriers and optimizing the allocation of resource factors among districts and counties. Based on the samples of counties (cities) implementing the county-to-district reform from 2011 to 2021, the PSM-DID model was adopted to empirically examine the impact of this policy on the allocation of resource factors among districts and counties. The results indicate that during the study period, the degree of misallocation of capital, labor force and overall resource factors presented an upward trend. The county-to-district reform has significantly improved the level of resource factor allocation among districts and counties, and such an effect is more manifested as a short-term one. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that the policy effect is more prominent in eastern regions as well as in cities with higher market accessibility and larger population size. In addition, compared with partial county-to-district adjustment, the policy effect of full-scale county-to-district adjustment is more pronounced. Mechanism analysis demonstrates that the county-to-district reform effectively reduces transportation costs, weakens administrative barriers, and improves the market and institutional environment by expanding transportation networks, restraining vicious competition among governments, and promoting the rationalization of public services, thereby guiding the rational flow of resource factors and facilitating the optimal allocation of resource factors among districts and counties. On the basis of the above conclusions, to maximize the policy dividends of the county-to-district reform, future reforms should focus on institutional integration, targeted policies, long-term guarantees and district-wide promotion, so as to systematically break down barriers to factor flow and achieve regional coordination and high-quality development.