요인분석에 의한 도시경쟁력 연구

A Study on the Cities' Competitiveness by Factor Analysis

With regard to the cities' competitiveness, this study aims at positioning 11 cities above 400,000 of population in Kyunggi-Do and making a direction for improvement of Anyang-Si. For the purpose the method of factor analysis is adopted to enhance the objectiveness of approach. There are three settings which make it reasonable to use the method of factor analysis for this study. (1) the obscurity of dependent variable which represents cities' competitiveness, (2) the micronumerosity of observations which are composed of 11 cities, and (3) the complexity and multicollinearity of many variables which show very high correlations to cause larger standard errors and statistically insignificant t-values of estimates. These are the cause why the ordinary approach including regression cannot be made. The choice of variables by means of survey results in 78 ones out of all the items reported in the Municipal Yearbook of Korea, 2008. In the course of the survey the minimum criteria which may be supported by preceding studies on this subject are used for filtering variables. The criteria are based on the relevance to attraction of residents, business entities and visitors. And the connection to sustainability, as it is called, is also added to the filtering criteria. By the statistical method of factor analysis this study finds 10 factors which determinate cities's competitiveness and explain all the variability of 78 variables. They are as follows; (1)City's size and convenience, (2)Higher education, visit and leisure, (3)Elementary education and social welfare, (4)Public service, (5)Weather, (6)Safety (7)Urban growth and inflow, (8)Medical environment and Health, (9)Hedonic environment and (10)Industrial base. This order means each priorities in explaining the total variance of variables. Every cities' ranks in each factor vary with wide range and no cities show absolute superiorities or inferiorities on overall factors. This fact tells us that the approach to improving the status of each city should be made selectively on the strategic base. Especially Anyang-Si reveals the weaknesses in the factors of Hedonic environment, Urban growth and inflow and is proposed to come enthusiastic over these factors and the related variables. In spite of many merits of finding various factors and data-based approach this study with the statistical analysis has several limits of which it is one not to consider normative criteria of competitive cities such as factors regarding quality of life, sound environment, and culture. And coordination of statistical methods and normative approach is desired for the balanced analysis. The continuous development in establishing the indices for the qualitative attributes is also anticipated.