The urban population agglomeration capacity and its impact on economic efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

This paper constructs and elaborates a theoretical model of urban economic efficiency (UEE) from the perspective of urban scaling law. A framework of urban economic analysis is established with urban population agglomeration capacity (UPAC) as the explanatory factor. Taking the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) as a case study, explore the influence of UPAC on UEE. The results show that the gap between the UEE in the YRDUA gradually decreases, the spatial agglomeration characteristic weakens, and the UEE among cities leads to a balanced tendency. However, the spatial agglomeration pattern of UPAC becomes more and more significant. (Mega/super) large cities are mostly advanced types, while small cities are lagging types. The influence of UPAC on UEE gradually decreases and diverges from significant positive influence to insignificant influence in advanced cities and significant positive influence in lagging cities. The framework of UEE research provides a more objective way to understand and compare the economic performance of cities of different scales. The empirical study findings provide a basis for decision-making on developing different types of cities.