Tax competition, spatial correlation and regional integration development--Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta

Integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) is an important national strategy to drive China's high-quality development. First, we discuss the influence mechanism of tax competition (TC) between local govern-ments on regional integration (RI) and its subsystems. Second, the spatial integration technology was assessed the development level and spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of RI and TC levels in the YRD from 2009 to 2019. Finally, a spatial econometric model is constructed to explore the effect of spatial. The results show the following: (1) From the perspective of the theoretical mechanism, a benign TC promotes the development of RI, but an excessive TC will lead to local governments weakening their service functions. (2) From the perspective of development status, the level of RI in the YRD shows a gradual increasing trend. Spatially, the RI shows a fan-shaped radiative distribution, while the TC shows a staggered agglomeration distribution. (3) The spatial impact of TC on the overall RI and its subsystems is negative, but the spatial impact on the public service subsystem is positive. And node cities have driving effects, while other cities have certain inhibitory effects; The impact of TC on RI varies depending on the economic density of cities.