Abstract Based on the panel data of 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper theoretically analyzes and empirically examines the influence of bank competition on urban industrial structure upgrading and its spatial spillover effect. It is found that bank competition can significantly promote the upgrading of urban industrial structure, and this conclusion is still valid after a series of endogenous and robust tests. The mechanism analysis indicates that bank competition can optimize urban industrial structure by promoting financial agglomeration and alleviating financing constraints. Heterogeneity analysis manifests that in samples of small scale cities and eastern cities, the effect of bank competition is obvious in promoting the upgrading of industrial structure. The spatial spillover effect shows that bank competition can not only promote the upgrading of local urban industrial structure, but also effectively radiate to neighboring cities, accelerating the upgrading process of industrial structure. Furthermore, it is found that this effect mainly exists in central and western cities. The findings not only enrich the economic benefits of bank competition, but also provide a useful reference for further deepening the reform of the financial supply side and boosting the high-quality development of the real economy.
2024, Vol. 41 
