Urbanization and Cultural Industry Correlation: An Empirical Analysis from China

The cultural industry has been recognized as an indispensable component of sustainable economic development. Urbanization often represents a country’s level of economic development. While China is advancing its new urbanization strategy, it is also vigorously promoting cultural revitalization plans. This study employs a global Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model and Tobit regression analysis to examine the correlation between China’s cultural industry and urbanization. The results indicate that although the overall economic efficiency of China’s cultural industry is continuously improving, the returns to scale in many provinces are declining. Changes brought about by new urbanization, such as increases in per capita GDP, per capita income, and enterprise scale, have significant positive impacts on the cultural industry. However, the rising urban population ratio has a significant negative impact on the cultural industry. This study suggests that the current new urbanization in China faces issues of oversimplification and excessive advancement. It recommends adjusting relevant policies to allow sufficient time and space for the cultural industry to absorb the benefits brought by urbanization. Given China’s specific national conditions, the conclusions of this study may not necessarily apply to other regions. However, the global DEA-Tobit combination method used in this study aligns more closely with reality and achieves a higher degree of fit, thus possessing a certain level of universality.