Producer Services in the Space Economy of the Yangtze Delta Area: Spatial Layout and Regional Economic Reconstruction

It is believed that producer services are important to regional economic growth. The rise of producer services in the Yangtze Delta Area has exerted incremental impact on regional economy and its spatial structure. This paper uses all-round factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis to investigate spatial layout of producer services, the main arguments are: i) Cities of the Yangtze River Delta could be divided into four tiers according to producer services employment score, the score of Shanghai highly exceeds the other cities, this region has one center (Shanghai) and two sub-centers (Hangzhou and Nanjing). ii) Difference in spatial layout of producer services in the Yangtze River Delta leads to a hierarchical structure, while spatial agglomeration of producer services contribute to the formation of location models, including central-place hierarchical model, core-periphery model and interdependent development model. iii) As one of the crucial elements in the growth of regional economy, spatial agglomeration of producer services promotes the reconstruction of regional economy in the Yangtze River Delta.