Impact of Logistics Development on Economic Growth: An Empirical Research from Guangdong Province in China

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impact of the development of the logistics industry on economic growth based on panel data of 21 cities in Guangdong Province in China from 2007 to 2019. Using the overall entropy method, the comprehensive development index of the logistics industry is constructed to capture the performance of the logistics industry. On this basis, by using Moran’s index, we measure the spatial agglomeration effect of the logistics industry. Furthermore, direct and spatial spillover effects are also obtained. The estimation results of the spatial Durbin model (SDM) reveal that the elasticity coefficient of the effect of the comprehensive development level of the logistics industry on economic growth is 0.2590, which is significant at the 1% level. In addition, the coefficient of the direct effect of the logistics industry on local economic growth is 0.4074, and the coefficient of the spatial spillover effect on the economic growth of the surrounding areas is 0.3596, which are both significant at the 1% level. These results indicate that the development of the logistics industry can not only improve local economic growth but also promote the economic growth of the surrounding regions.