Spatial dependence of the level of urbanization and its economic mechanism- A spatial analysis in demography

Through exploratory spatial analysis, this paper found strong spatial dependence in levels of urbanization among 287 prefecture-level cities in China, and the high-high and low-low were the dominant spatial agglomeration types of the neighbor cities. The major socio-economic factors also showed obvious spatial dependence, which might contribute to the spatial aggregation of the urbanization level. Spatial error regression model further verified and controlled this kind of spatial dependence, and indicated that the degree of openness relatively more significantly increased the urbanization level than the degree of industrialization due to household registration system and strategy as well as process of industrialization in China.