Abstract
Abstract
In this study, which utilizes matched data from 254 cities and micro-enterprises in China, we employ the Kaplan-Meier function and survival analysis model to examine the impact of urban opening up and industrial agglomeration, as well as their interaction, on enterprises’ export survival. The findings indicate that urban opening up enhances the probability and duration of enterprises’ export survival through the mechanisms of competition, learning, and spillover effects. However, these effects display a scale threshold and demonstrate an inverted “U” shaped pattern of agglomeration spillover. By addressing endogeneity concerns through the use of the geographical distance between each prefecture-level city and the nearest port as an instrumental variable for urban opening up, as well as by modifying the measurement techniques of core indicators and the sample selection range, we verify the robustness of the results. Furthermore, our additional analysis reveals that industrial agglomeration improvement has a crowding-out effect on the promoting impact of urban opening up on export survival. In comparison to the central and western regions, urban opening up and industrial agglomeration in the eastern areas exhibit a higher degree of alignment and a relatively smaller crowding-out effect. Moreover, based on the analysis of enterprise ownership differentiation, we observe that foreign-funded enterprises benefit from the combined influence of urban opening up and industrial agglomeration, which consequently enhances their likelihood of export survival. However, the extensive urban opening up diminishes the spillover effect of industrial agglomeration on non-state-owned domestic enterprises. In contrast, state-owned enterprises are not subject to the negative influence from this coupling effect. Mechanism testing confirms the importance of spillover and learning effects as crucial mechanisms through which urban opening up promotes enterprises’ export survival. This article contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying urban opening up, industrial agglomeration, and their combined effects on enterprise export survival. It holds significant implications for government policymakers aiming to enhance the quality of external opening and achieve domestic industrial upgrading.
JEL classifications: F061; F11; F14; F16; F41; R12
Publisher
Research Square Platform LLC