Is the Urban Shrinkage Inhibits the Improvement of Public Service Level?

Article history Received: 15 May 2020 Accepted: 18 May 2020 Published Online: 31 May 2020 Public services provide convenient conditions for urban residents to study, work and live, and have important significance for improving the life quality of residents and improving the level of welfare. However, while China’s spatial economic is heading towards agglomeration development, a large number of cities have shrunk, which has made unbalanced supply of public services between regions increasingly prominent. Based on the existing literature and the development reality, this paper analyzes the impact of urban shrinkage on the public service level from the public service supply mechanism, and discusses the heterogeneous effects of different labor shrinkage on public services. The results of the study show that urban shrinkage will inhibit the improvement of public service level, but inter-governmental competition makes the labor shrinkage of industry and service industry promote the improvement of public service level. In addition, this paper takes economic development level as a moderating variable to study the moderating effect of economic development level in the impact of urban shrinkage on public service levels. It is found that the reduction of economic development level will promote government competition and provide more public services.