How Does New Infrastructure Investment Affect Economic Growth Quality? Empirical Evidence from China

Spatial-temporally and industrially heterogeneous effects of new infrastructure construction on fostering emerging industries in Chinese cities

New infrastructure construction stemming from the new waves of technological revolution worldwide is exemplified by 5G base stations, big data centers, and ultra-high voltage. It has aroused extensive academic and policy interests in recent years, especially due to its beneficial role in empowering regional novel economic dynamics. However, this argument is still too general to capture the nuanced effects of new infrastructure construction on fostering emerging industries in specific spatial-temporal and industrial contexts, which is left for geographers to take up. This paper focuses on the spatial-temporally and industrially heterogeneous effects of new infrastructure construction on fostering four distinctive emerging industries in major Chinese cities over the last decade. It reveals that new infrastructure construction and emerging industries have experienced rapid development in major Chinese cities, with geographical agglomeration in national central cities with advanced economic development level. It is empirically demonstrated that new infrastructure construction can facilitate the development of emerging industries in major Chinese cities, while significant spatial-temporal heterogeneity characterizes the contributory forces. Furthermore, artificial intelligence as a Key Enabling Technology, robotics as a kind of hardware-featured industry, software-as-a-service as a software-centered industry, and blockchain as a networking-oriented industry vary markedly in the extent and the ways in which they benefit from new infrastructure construction, and they consequently exhibit industrial sensitivity to spatial-temporal heterogeneity in the fostering effects.

Spatio-temporal evolution of coupling coordination between new infrastructure and regional sustainability in China

To achieve high-quality development, it is crucial to encourage the coordinated development of new infrastructure (NI) and regional sustainability (RS). Based on the coupling mechanism of NI and RS, this study develops a comprehensive evaluation index system, coupling coordination degree model (CCDM), spatial autocorrelation model, and standard deviation ellipse model used to estimate the coupling coordination degree (CCD) of NI-RS in China mainland between 2013 and 2020 and analyze the temporal and spatial evolution characteristic. The results showed the following: (1) The NI index fluctuated and increased, while the RS index increased year by year, showing a gradient-decreasing distribution pattern from east to west; (2) CCD increases year by year, but the spatial distribution is unbalanced, and CCD in eastern coastal areas is significantly higher than that in western areas. (3) The CCD of NI and RS showed a significant spatial positive correlation, showing that the high-value cluster in the east and the low-value cluster in the west. (4) The standard deviation ellipse of the national CCD showed a northeast-southwest distribution, the center of gravity migrated to the southwest, and the spatial clustering characteristics were significant. (5) Finally, the GM (1,1) model indicates a steady increase in CCD from 2021 to 2025. Based on the location distribution and evolution of the CCD between NI and RS in China, corresponding policy suggestions are put forward.

Decision-Making Based on Network Analyses of New Infrastructure Layouts

New Infrastructure (NI) has gradually become a new driving force for regional economic growth and an important part of the construction of new urban infrastructure in many countries, including China. Compared with traditional infrastructures, these NIs have mutually supportive functions and complex interrelationships that create interconnected networks of resources, information, and other interactions during the construction of the NIs. Therefore, it is important to analyze such correlation networks and explore their formation mechanisms in order to develop more scientific and reasonable strategies for NI investment and construction. In this study, the interdependence between NIs in Chongqing was analyzed as an example. Social network analysis (SNA) was used for the overall characteristics of the interdependency network of the NIs and an exponential random graph model (ERGM) was used to reveal the formation mechanism of this network. The results showed that information infrastructure is the key node for enhancing the effectiveness of Chongqing’s NI needs and its government should play a coordinating role. The network of related relationships is characterized by “reciprocity” and “small group”. The aggregation of NIs with such characteristics can produce an agglomeration effect. So, in the planning of NIs, the coordination among management departments should be strengthened and project locations should be reasonably arranged according to the functional interactive characteristics of the projects.