Does functional specialization affect collaborative development? Evidence from four Chinese metropolitan areas

The layout of urban spatial functions may play an important role in sustainable regional development. Given the rapid development of urbanization in China, this study attempts to analyze how functional specialization affects coordinated regional development. To quantitatively measure the degree of coordinated development within different regions, the coordinated degree index is used to calculate the degree of coordinated development of four Chinese metropolitan areas from 2008 to 2019. The panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model is employed to empirically test the impact of urban functional specialization on coordinated regional development. The results indicate that high market activity is conducive to the formation of functional specialization synergy in space, and the level of social productivity directly affects the functional specialization and the level of synergy within a region. With the continuous strengthening of the implementation of local government policies, the functional specialization and synergy in metropolitan areas have gradually strengthened. However, the promotion effects and the expression of functional specialization, the coordinated development of government actions, and spatial functions differ across metropolitan areas in China.