The Economic Spillover Effect of the Collaborative Agglomeration between Manufacturing and Producer Services

High-quality economic development is an inevitable requirement for promoting sustainable development. Stacks of research papers have suggested that the quality of China's economic development will make an important contribution to promoting global sustainable development. The collaborative agglomeration between manufacturing and producer services is determined by multiple factors, including industrial characteristics and industrial associations. This is conducive to the efficient evolution of the industrial structure and to further achieving high-quality economic development. Based on the provincial data from 2010 to 2021 in China, this research evaluated the impact of co-agglomeration between manufacturing and producer services on high-quality economic development by using the double-fixed-effect spatial Durbin model. The benchmark regression results showed that industrial co-agglomeration impacted high-quality economic development in an inverted U-shaped. This result had a significant positive spatial spillover and was robust. In the spatial heterogeneity tests, the co-agglomeration of industries had different effects on high-quality development in regions. The strongest spillover effect of positive externalities was in the eastern region, which played an active role as a "growth pole". The "siphon effect" happened in the central region. The spillover effect had a "U" shape in the western region, and the co-agglomeration inhibited current high-quality development. In the mechanism analysis, the industrial co-agglomeration enhanced high-quality development by stimulating green innovation, and the digital economy had a positive moderating effect. The study presented in this article provides empirical evidence and offers policy recommendations for formulating industrial policies and improving the quality of economic development.