The construction and optimization of the measurement index system of city-industry integration

1.1 Introduce the index with the characteristics of the era and reflect the integration process

In the index design, the indexes used in many literatures are relatively backward and can not fully reflect the word “new pattern”. Therefore, this paper selects the indexes that keep pace with the era and adapt to the development basing on the principle concise science, system integrity, hierarchy and comparable, quantity, feasibility and dynamic, the current situation of social development and the new “two modernizations” characteristics of city-industry integration such as selecting “the internet access rate of urban residents”, “the ratio of online goods purchases volume than goods purchases volume”. And according to the current development stage of domestic industrialization, this paper emphasizes the green environmental protection index in the selection of index. Meanwhile, this paper chooses the index of “the ratio of registered urban population to permanent urban population”, which can totally reflect the concepts and processes of the city-industry integration, making the index system more reasonable and perfect.1

From the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to the Central Urbanization Work Conference, keywords like “ecological protection”, the “quality” of urbanization, “low-carbon and environmental protection” and “industrial upgrading” have been repeatedly mentioned, which shows the importance of the ecological environmental protection and the tertiary industry’s growth in promoting new urbanization. However, the existing literatures often value quantitative index and ignore the qualitive index. Therefore, this paper introduces a series of indexes that reflect the quality of urbanization and industrialization development, such as “three industry service density” and “total pollution source management funds” to construct a scientific and convincing index system and better reflect the level of city-industry integration as shown in Table 1.

2.1 Expert interviews to select index

We preliminary determine the indexes of target level and the indexes of some elements level and index level through expert interviews.

City-industry integration is a new topic. At present, limited researches on quantitative measurement of city-industry integration are published. How to select appropriate measurement indexes is one of the difficulties in this paper. In order to ensure the selection of index is reasonable and applicable, six senior experts in related fields were interviewed in this research.

(1) In this interview, a total of 6 experts were interviewed face-to-face including 3 professors from Tongji University, 1 professor from Shanghai Jiaotong University, 1 expert from Shanghai Development Research Center and 1 associate professor from Tongji University. The six experts are senior experts, professors and doctoral supervisors in relevant areas, whose research fields are mainly focusing on urban development and management, regional economy, practical economics and regional innovation.

Through the expert interview, we obtained the important index selection ideas, determined the selection of the element level in the index system, and confirmed some indexes of the index level simultaneously. For instance, focusing on the tertiary industry, people-oriented, environmental protection, and pays attention to “quality”, element Level indexes such as “people’s life”, “green manufacturing”, “information level”, “environmental state”, “social services”, etc.; We determined some indexes of Level index such as “per capita service product occupancy”, “service density”, “the number of doctors per 10 000 population”, “the number of private cars per 100 households”, etc.

(2) Outlines and contents of expert interview. In this interview, we mainly communicated with experts from following aspects: 1) What aspects should be considered in the selection of city-industry integration indexes? What characteristics and principles should index follow? 2) Which fields and industries indexes should be considered? 3) How to make the selected indexes have rationality and applicability? 4) How to make the selected indexes innovative compared with previous researches? 5) Which types of indexes can fully reflect the characteristics of the era, keep pace with the era, and emphasize “quality”? Can you list some? 6) Which indexes cannot be selected repeatedly?

Through sorting out the interviews with experts, it can be seen that: 1) Most experts believe that the index system of city-industry integration can be considered from two aspects: new-type urbanization and new-type industrialization, but the new-type industrialization here is in a broad sense including tertiary industry and emerging service industry. Meanwhile, the city-industry integration indexes should pay attention to people-oriented and quality, and keep pace with the era. For instance, there are indexes that reflect people’s lives, green manufacturing, information level, environmental status, and social services. 2) The experts generally believe that the fields of information service, environmental protection and tertiary industry need to be seriously considered in the construction. 3) Experts emphasize that drawing on relevant research results can improve the rationality and basis of the system. 4) The experts put forward that index innovation can neither be fabricated nor outdated. On the one hand, it is necessary to conduct in-depth researches on existing research results. On the other hand, further refine the indexes. For example, the relevant indexes of the tertiary industry commonly have “the proportion of the output value in the tertiary industry” and “the proportion of employees in the tertiary industry”, which can enrich the related indexes of the tertiary industry. 5) The experts propose that the relevant innovation indexes mainly include “per capita service product occupancy”, “service density”, “the number of doctors per 10 000 population”, “the number of private cars per 100 households”, etc. 6) The experts believe that multiple similar indexes can be selected. When the sample size is small, the indexes in different fields should be considered. For instance, “the number of doctors per 10 000 people” and “the number of hospitals per 10 000 people” pick one of them to avoid repetition.

2.2 Literature research to select indexes

Through the relevant literature research to further improve the elements level and index level indexes, we combined with expert interview opinions, initially selected 38 indexes such as “the number of private cars per 100 households” and “the proportion of secondary industry”.

According to the target level indexes determined by the expert interviews, we further determined the specific indexes to measure the new industrialization and the new urbanization respectively by studying the relevant literatures.

(1) At present, the academia has quite mature research on the industrialization process and the selection of indexes is less different. Despite the understanding of the new industrialization indexes is different, most of them are increasingly emphasizing indexes related to “tertiary industry” and “ecological environment”, such as “the proportion of the tertiary industry” and “comprehensive utilization rate of the industrial solid waste”. For example, Wang and Yang [1] takes the proportion of the tertiary industry as a crucial index to measure the degree of economic development. Xue et al. [2] introduces the “comprehensive utilization rate of the industrial solid waste” to reflect the environmental protection.

(2) With the increasingly rich connotation of new-type urbanization, the academia has not yet formed a concise, systematic, authoritative and universal evaluation index system for new-type urbanization. However, we can still get inspirations from the literature review, and urbanization “quality” related indexes are receiving more and more attention. For example, Tian [3] and Wang [4] all believe that the selection of urbanization indexes should focus on the combination of the quality and urbanization speed, giving priority to quality. The Urbanization Index System for National New Urbanization Planning selects “domestic garbage disposal rate” to reflect the ecological protection.

(3) Based on the previous research results of the literature review and combining the opinions of interview experts, this paper initially selects 38 indicators as follows:

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Product sales rate (%), contribution rate of total assets (%), industrial added value rate (%)

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Guo and Li [5] carried out the construction and evaluation of the regional industrial performance index system from multi-dimensions, among which, the industrial growth dimension selects industrial added value rate, contribution rate of total industrial enterprise assets, product sales rate and other indexes.

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Xie and Li [6] adopted a comprehensive empowerment method combining subjective and objective to build a new industrialization index system with Chinese characteristics contains four levels: target level, 3 guidelines, 8 themes and 34 indexes, among which, the economic benefits include the product sales rate and the contribution rate of total assets.

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Huang et al. [7] used the hierarchical analysis method and the gray correlation analysis method to measure the level and development trend of new industrialization in Chongqing city, and also selected the industrial added value rate, the product sales rate, the contribution rate of total assets, etc.

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Per capita GDP (yuan), industrial added value above designated size (100 million yuan), total profit of industrial enterprises above designated size (100 million yuan)

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Wang and Li [8] are based on multiple variance analysis of the difference of the new industrialization level in the six provinces in central China, Yang and Liu [9] comprehensively evaluate the industrialization level of China and the six central provinces based on gray association analysis method, and all selected the per capita GDP index.

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The proportion of light industrial output value above designated size (%), the proportion of output value of high-tech industry (%), the proportion of the output value of the tertiary industry (%)

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Yuan et al. [10] constructed a five-level evaluation system for the development level index of new industrialization in Shaanxi Province. The proportion of the output value of high-tech industries in the total output value is a measure index of the science and technology level.

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Huang and Gong [11] constructed a new industrialization evaluation index system according to the latest dynamics of the new industrialization structure and economic structure adjustment in Jiangsu province, among which, the proportion of the tertiary industry in GDP is used to measure the economic growth.

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Production volume of industrial solid waste (10 000 tons), comprehensive utilization rate of industrial solid waste (%), total funds for controlling pollution sources (100 million yuan)

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Wang [12] built a new regional industrialization level evaluation system, and adopted the indexes such as the volume of solid waste produced per unit of industrial output value and the comprehensive utilization rate of industrial solid waste in terms of resources and environment.

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Geng [13] constructed the evaluation system of the new industrialization process for the basic characteristics and due connotation of the new industrialization, among which, the environmental protection level highlights the comprehensive utilization rate index of the industrial solid waste.

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The number of mobile phone users at year-end (10 000 households), international Internet users (10 000 households), total post and telecommunications business (100 million yuan)

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Sun and Zhou [14] constructed an evaluation system consisting of 7 criteria Levels and 27 indexes according to the characteristics of multiple targets and conditional constraints and its influencing factors in the process of new industrialization in less-developed regions.

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Service density (the value-added of the three industries/the total area of the region), per capita service product occupancy (the value-added of the three industries/the total population of the region), the proportion of the value-added of the tertiary industry in GDP (%)

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Liu [15] constructed an evaluation index system for the new industrialization development in Henan province including the proportion of the value-added of the tertiary industry in GDP.

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The population (ten thousand), non-agricultural population (ten thousand), natural population growth rate (%)

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Chen et al. [16] made an empirical analysis on the urbanization development level of all provinces and cities in China and districts of each city in Fujian Province in 2008 based on the composite index method consisting of 14 indexes including basic level, social development level and potential power, among which, the natural population growth rate is selected as the potential power index.

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Li [17] constructed an index system for the comprehensive development level of urbanization, in which the population development index included the natural population growth rate.

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Construction land area (square kilometer), urban road area (10 000 square meters), urban population density (person/square kilometer)

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Huang [18] constructed an evaluation system of urbanization level from six aspects: economic development, industrial structure, population, regional landscape, lifestyle and civilization degree. Among them, the level of regional landscape urbanization includes urban construction land area, per capita urban road area and urban population density.

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Chen and Zhang [19] put forward an index system to measure the quality of urban development from six aspects: residential environment, ecological environment, social harmony, public security, economic development and resource conservation, among which, the urban population density is taken as an index to measure resource conservation (land).

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The proportion of non-agricultural population in the total population (%), the proportion of employees in the tertiary industry (%), the proportion of tertiary industry practitioners (%), and undergraduates in ordinary institutions of higher learning (10 000).

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Niu et al. [20] established an evaluation index system of new urbanization consisting of population, economy, infrastructure, quality of life, ecological environment, and the urban and rural coordinated development based on an examination and the defense of the essential connotation and characteristics of new urbanization. Among them, the proportion of non-agricultural population and the proportion of employees in secondary and tertiary industries were included in the evaluation system.

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Ma et al. [21] set up a new urban modernization index system by selecting 25 indexes from five aspects of population, economy, society, culture and environment under the guidance of people-oriented and sustainable development principles, covering the proportion of urban population in the total population and the proportion of employees in tertiary industry accounting for the urban population.

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The number of doctors (people) per 10 000 population, the number of teachers per thousand people (people), urban per capita residential construction area (square meters), the number of private cars per 100 households (vehicles)

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Liu et al. [22] constituted the comprehensive evaluation system of urbanization for Central Plains urban agglomerations by four subsystems of population, economy, land and society, and the social urbanization includes the indexes such as the number of doctors per 10 000 people and the number of teachers per 10 000 people, etc.

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Guo et al. [23] established a comprehensive index system to measure the level of urbanization on the basis of researching the connotation of new urbanization. Among them, the living indexes include the per capita housing use area of urban residents, the number of the civil cars owned per 100 people, the number of teachers owned by 10 000 people, the medical staff owned by 10 000 people, etc.

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On the basis of defining the quality connotation of urbanization, Zhang et al. [24] constructed a comprehensive evaluation index system for the quality of urbanization in developed areas from the aspects of economy, livelihood and urban-rural integration and sustainable development, etc. including the number of civil cars owned by urban residents per 10 000 people.

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Libraries (building) per million people, bus line operation length per 10 000 people (km/10 000 people), and Cable TV entry rate (%).

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Under the guidance of new urbanization theory, Li [25] constructed an index system to measure the urbanization level in southern Shaanxi, among which the Cable TV entry rate is an important index to measure the level of living urbanization.

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Green coverage rate (%) in the urban area, urban domestic sewage treatment rate (%), pollution-free treatment of domestic waste (%) (calculate according to the clearing volume).

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Zhang et al. [26] constructed an index system for the evaluation of the development level of new urbanization in Hebei province including the green coverage rate of urban areas and urban sewage treatment rate, etc.

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Lv [27] established the index system of urbanization from three aspects: urban development, economic development and service function, among which, service functions include the domestic waste clearing volume index.

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Li and Qin [28] used gray correlation analysis method to comprehensively evaluate the urbanization level of cities in Central Plains urban agglomeration from the perspective of Central Plains urban agglomeration, among which, they selected the indexes such as the green coverage rate of urban areas, urban domestic sewage treatment rate and domestic waste harmless treatment rate.

2.3 The research group discussed the primary indexes

Through expert opinions and research group discussion, fine-tuning of individual indexes was carried out, and finally three representative indexes were added with two adjusted primary indexes and deletion of two primary indexes.

Based on the preliminary selection of 38 indexes, this paper adds two indexes: “urban residents’ internet access rate” and “the ratio of online commodity shopping volume to commodity shopping volume” according to the common opinions of experts and tutors outside the school, which can fully reflect the level of new-type urbanization, especially the indexes of people’s life. Adding the indexes of “the ratio of registered urban population to permanent urban population” can reflect the concept and process of industry-city integration. According to expert opinions, “undergraduate students in ordinary colleges and universities” was replaced by “students in ordinary colleges and universities”, because a large number of skilled workers with scientific knowledge and master’s and doctoral students with higher education are needed in the process of new-type urbanization and new-type industrialization. “The number of private cars per 100 households” was replaced by “the proportion of the total number of subway travelers in the total urban population every morning and evening”. At present, the subway is still widely used in transportation, connecting urban and rural areas, so the latter can better explain the level of industry-city integration.

Finally, the author found that the importance of the tertiary industry has won more respects by consulting the literature. Therefore, the index of “proportion of the secondary industry” is deleted whilst the “proportion of the tertiary industry” is emphasized. Meanwhile, the index of “number of teachers per thousand” is removed, avoiding duplicate and redundant indexes. This index is the same index reflecting the education level as “students in ordinary colleges and universities”, and the latter can intuitively reflect the characteristics of the times.

3.1 Index inspection standards and principles

In a concise, comprehensive and effective index system, all variables are independent. Therefore, correlation analysis must be carried out on the index system after the primary selection. If there are variables with the high correlation degree in the same index, they should be removed to ensure the feasibility of the whole index system. The degree of correlation between two or more variables can be analyzed by calculating the correlation coefficient with the application of SPSS.

When the correlation coefficient is greater than zero, it indicates that the change direction of the two indexes is the same, that is, the indexes are positively correlated; The correlation coefficient is less than zero, indicating that the two indexes are negatively correlated. Moreover, the original hypothesis of correlation analysis is that the overall correlation is zero, that is, there is no significant linear correlation between the two variables. When the corresponding concomitant probability value is less than or equal to the specified significance level, the original hypothesis is rejected and it is considered that there is a significant linear correlation between the two variables; If the accompanying probability value is greater than the specified significance level, the original hypothesis cannot be rejected and it is considered that there is no significant linear correlation between the two variables. This is the basis for judging whether the correlation between the two variables is significant or not.

Several commonly used correlation coefficients are Pearson simple correlation coefficient, Spearman and Kendall’s tau-b grade correlation coefficient. When the overall distribution of data is unknown, Spearman and Kendall’s tau-b grade correlation coefficients should be used for analysis and they all belong to non-parametric statistical methods. Therefore, this paper uses these two correlation analysis methods to process the data.

It should be noted that when analyzing the correlation degree between variables in the original hypothesis, the closer the absolute value of the correlation coefficient is to 1, the higher the correlation degree of the two variables is; The closer the absolute value of the correlation coefficient is to 0, the weaker the linear correlation between the two variables is. For the sake of preciseness, this paper only judges the choice of two similar index variables with correlation coefficient equal to 1, namely completely correlated variables.

3.2 Process and results of index review

The results of correlation analysis are shown in Table 2: Firstly, whether Spearman coefficient or Kendall’s tau-b coefficient analysis, the correlation coefficients between the internal indexes of new-type urbanization and new-type industrialization are positive and negative, indicating that there may be different positive or negative correlation between variables; In addition, the correlation coefficients between the internal indexes of new-type urbanization and new-type industrialization are less than 1, and it accepts the original hypothesis at the significance level of 0.05 or even 0.01, that is, it is considered that there is no significant linear correlation between the two variables. Therefore, it is considered that the internal indexes of the two systems of new-type industrialization and new-type urbanization are relatively independent.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the correlation analysis here is completely different from the “city-industry” correlation analysis in Chapter 6: Firstly, the analysis objectives are different. The correlation analysis is to examine the rationality of the index system, while the “city-industry” correlation analysis is to prove that industrialization and urbanization are positively correlated; Secondly, the analysis objects are different. The correlation analysis object is the correlation between the internal indexes of the two systems of new-type industrialization and new-type urbanization, while the correlation analysis object of “city-industry” is the correlation between the two general indexes of the new-type industrialization system and the new-type urbanization system; Finally, the analysis results are different. The correlation analysis verifies that the internal indexes of the two new-type urbanization systems are relatively independent, and the index system is reasonable [29]; The “city-industry” correlation analysis proves that there is a positive correlation between the two systems of new-type industrialization and new-type urbanization. Therefore, the two “correlation analysis” in this paper are completely different. However, the names are similar, which easy to cause confusion and they are emphasized.

Through the above index selection steps, according to the index selection principles, combined with the connotation of city-industry integration and the characteristics of the new-type “two modernizations”, the city-industry integration indexes are finally selected as follows: The city-industry integration measurement index system is composed of two primary indexes of the new-type urbanization development index and the new-type industrialization development index [30]. Among them, the new-type urbanization development indexes include seven secondary indexes: population scale, spatial composition, population structure, people’s life, social services, environmental status and population flow. The development indexes of new-type industrialization include six secondary indexes: industrial efficiency, economic output, industrial structure, green manufacturing, information level and tertiary industry. Each secondary index is composed of several tertiary indexes. Tertiary indexes are the basis for the subdivision and quantification of secondary indexes. The constructed measurement index system is shown in Table 3.