Transportation Infrastructure Construction and Urban Economic Resilience: The Moderating Effect Based on the Polycentric Spatial Structure of Urban Agglomerations

Economic resilience refers to the capacity of cities to deal with structural changes and carry out transformation, which is of vital significance for sustainable regional development. Based on the panel data of 218 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2022, this study explores the impact of transportation infrastructure construction on urban economic resilience and its influence mechanisms, as well as the moderating effect of the polycentric spatial structure of urban agglomerations. The findings reveal that the improvement of transportation infrastructure is conducive to enhancing urban economic resilience, and this enhancement effect exhibits significant heterogeneity among cities at different sizes and urban agglomerations levels. The mechanism analysis indicates that promoting factor mobility, stimulating innovation effect, and optimizing industrial structure are the transmission mechanisms through which transportation infrastructure construction boosts urban economic resilience. Additionally, the polycentric spatial structure of urban agglomerations has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between transportation infrastructure construction and urban economic resilience. However, there is a notable difference based on the strength of the polycentric index.