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Data analysis for metropolitan economic and logistics development

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Highlights

  • Quantitative examination of relations between metropolitan logistics and economy.

  • Objective weight determination for indicators in the evaluation index systems.

  • Regression analysis of the development of metropolitan logistics and economy.

  • Correlation and regression analysis between economic forms and logistics subsystems.

Abstract

Logistics industry is an integral sector encompassing transportation, warehousing, handling, circulation and processing, delivery and information technology. With the progress of economic globalization and integration, logistics industry has become a new momentum driving the fast development of national and regional economy. The close relationship between economic development and logistics advancement receives wide attention from the academia. However, current research on the coordination between economy and logistics mostly focuses on concept interpretation, and qualitative discussions. Very rarely do scholars conduct quantitative analysis on the coordination of metropolitan economy and logistics. To fill this gap, we first examine whether there exist interactions between metropolitan logistics and economy by building evaluation index systems for metropolitan logistics and economy. Then we introduce the entropy method and Granger causality test to evaluate and test the level of logistics and economic development in five cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Tianjin from 2009 to 2013. From the dimensions of regional economic investment, regional economic capacity and strength, we finally test the relationship between three economic subsystems and three logistics subsystems to further validate the relationship between metropolitan economy and logistics.

Introduction

With the globalization of the world’s economy, metropolises have played an increasingly important role in the international economic competition and cooperation. The booming metropolitan economy and the rapid development of modern commodity markets both contribute greatly to the rise of metropolitan logistics, which refers to “the logistics activities both within the metropolis and across metropolitan borders”. Metropolitan logistics, as an important constituent of metropolitan economy guarantees the smooth operation of metropolitan economy by managing the flow of things between the point of origin and the point of consumption. Efficient metropolitan logistics can act as a strong driving force to the development of metropolitan economy. However, it can also lead to a waste of governmental and social resources, if the economy cannot generate enough demand for logistics capability and further investment are still flowing into the logistics industry. In other words, the development of metropolitan economy and logistics should be coordinated. Thus attentions should be paid to the research on coordinated development of metropolitan economy and logistics, which can maximize the stakeholders’ benefit.

However, current research efforts mostly focus on the influencing effects of metropolitan logistics on metropolitan economy and fail to consider the reverse influence, let alone the mutual effects between the two using the quantitative methods. The systematic study on the Coordinated Development between Metropolitan Economy and Logistics is beneficial to understanding the mutual effects between the metropolitan logistics and economy, and is conducive to clarifying whether metropolitan logistics develops harmoniously with its economy.

This paper attempts to make quantitative analyses of the impact the metropolitan economic development has on logistics development, as well as the impact the latter casts on the former. The development of logistics industry has a far-reaching influence on the optimization of metropolitan industrial structure. With the support of information technology, the modern logistics industry has widely adopted many new information technologies. Judging from the various effects that economic growth has produced, it has exerted a positive and profound impact on logistics. It not only affects the growth of the logistics demand, but also boosts a qualitative leap for its progressing [18].

In order to prove the rationality of the above discussions, the authors, by using of data from China Statistical Yearbook, quantitatively analyzes the coordinated development between metropolitan economy and logistics. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Tianjin are taken as research objects. Each group of analyses involves an economic development index and a logistics index. Corresponding indexes are selected to conduct the calculation of coordinated development degree. Exploring the interaction between logistics industry and economic development, and correctly grasping the direction of logistics development, will cast a positive influence on logistics industry and national economic development.

The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 reviews the related research literature; Section 3 describes the appraisal model of the coordinated development of metropolitan logistics and economy and leverages the Granger causality test to examine the interactive relationship between logistics and economy of five metropolises; Section 4 explores the relation between economic subsystems and logistics subsystems from three economic forms at a microscopic level to achieve a systematic and in-depth investigation; and Section 5 provides brief concluding remarks.

Section snippets

Literature review

Logistics industry, as an important industry in the national economy, attracts attentions from both the academia and industry. Extensive research has been conducted in this regard. For example, Wiengarten et al. [27] explored the impact of a country’s logistical capabilities on external supply chain integration of a company, to provide insights for companies to deal with economic globalization. Among the literature, much attention has been paid to metropolitan logistics. At present, the studies

Relation between metropolitan economy and logistics

In order to verify the mutually influencing relationship between the development of metropolitan economy and logistics, we take five Chinese metropolises as research subjects and use their statistical data of economic and logistics development for correlation analysis and regression analysis [3].

This section includes: the standardized process of original data about five metropolises obtained from the China Statistical Yearbook; application of the entropy method to determine the weightings of

Relation analysis of economic subsystems and logistics subsystems

Section 3 has conducted the Granger causality test on the relationship between metropolitan economic and logistics development, which shows the mutually influencing relation between the two. However, it only takes a macro perspective in probing into the relationship between logistics and economic and lacks an in-depth analysis of the relationship between the subsystems of economy and logistics using mathematical formula. Thus this section explores the relation between economic subsystems and

Concluding remarks

In order to validate the interactive relationships between the development of metropolitan economy and logistics, correlation and regression analysis are employed. Based on the data of the above five metropolises, and three economic forms, which are regional economic investment, economic capacity and economic strength, this research conducts correlation analysis and regression analysis on urban road, total postal business volume and workforce in logistics industry respectively so as to explore

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