Does public poverty alleviation concern help economic development in impoverished counties: evidence from urban agglomerations in China

This article focuses on public poverty alleviation concern in urban agglomerations and explores how they impact the economic development of impoverished counties using Chinese city-level public poverty alleviation concern data. The empirical results reveal that public poverty alleviation concern positively affects the GDP of impoverished counties. The positive effect of these concern primarily relies on (i) the intensive marginal effect that enables firms in impoverished counties to achieve improved market performance and increased capital returns, subsequently expanding both enterprise production and investment; and (ii) the extensive marginal effect that promotes enterprise inflow, growth of societal fixed assets investment, and creation of more job opportunities in impoverished counties. Additionally, the public poverty alleviation concern effect is more pronounced when spatial transaction costs and urban primary index of urban agglomeration are lower. The results highlight the significance of public poverty alleviation concern in the economic development of impoverished areas. The findings have important implications for policymakers in other emerging economies seeking to achieve sustainable poverty reduction and regional coordination of urban agglomerations.