| Abstract | This paper aims to study the effects of urbanization and megapolization on the size of local government. Theoretically, this paper shows that urbanization rate, urban density and the rate of population megapolization have a positive role in promoting the size of local government. The rate of population megapolization has greater influence on local government size than urbanization on it. Production megapolization rate has an U-shaped impact on the size of local government size. The effect of production magapolization on the size of local government is affected by population megapolization. Using provincial panel data of China from 1998 to 2013, this paper also do some empirical studies. The empirical results is highly consistent with the theoretical models, and the results are robust. In the context of China’s new-type urbanization and streamline administration and delegate power of government, this paper provides the policy implications that, in the urbanization process, optimizing the urban layouts and morphology can control the expansion of the size of local government to some extent. |