Chen Mingxing(陈明星), Zhang Hua, Liu Weidong(刘卫东), Zhang Wenzhong(张文忠).The Global Pattern of Urbanization and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Last Three Decades. PloS ONE, 2014, 9(8): e103799. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0103799. (SCI, 2013IF=3.534)
　　城市化与经济发展之间关系是经典理论问题，但究竟如何互动却仍是个谜。文章采用GIS分析、截面数据以及面板分析等方法，基于全球尺度不同国家在1980-2011年间的城市化与经济发展数据，定量分析了城市化格局变化以及与经济发展之间的互动关系。研究表明全球城市化水平在过去30年发生了显著变化，尤其是中国、东南亚和非洲部分国家，发展中国家人口主要城市化水平从1980年的10%-30%区间提到到30%-60%区间；实证分析支持了城市化与经济发展水平之间存在密切相关性的结论，但是明确提出在全球尺度上没有证据表明城市化速度与经济增长速度之间存在相关性观点；因此，发展中国家希望通过政府主导型加速城市化来实现更快的经济增长是不可取的；同时，对城市化过程需要开展综合评估，考虑其前向效应(如非农就业岗位规模支撑等)与后向效应（经济、社会和环境可持续性等）。
　　审稿人认为“The paper presents a very important discussion on the relationship between urbanization and economic growth. This works challenges the paradigm that the speed of urbanization is related to economic growth rate. I find this paper to be both very timely and relevant, and believe that this work is important and needs to be published. ”
　　论文链接：http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0103799
　　美国Technology.org网站以“Fast urbanization does not boost economy, study shows”为题对本论文主要观点进行了摘编，作为网站Spotlight news发布：
　　……“It is generally accepted that economic growth promotes the expansion of modern industries and an increase in the urban population; in turn, urbanization also promotes economic growth to some extent. Various programs of accelerated urbanization and rapid economic growth have, therefore, been embarked upon in many developing countries,” the scholars say. However, Mingxing Chen and his colleagues argue that situation is not so simple.……There is no doubt, that this discovery can have significant policy implications. It shows that value of urbanization speed is overrated.　　
　　转载链接：http://www.technology.org/2014/08/07/fast-urbanization-boost-economy-study-shows/