The development zone is an important institutional form of industrial spatial organization in China’s economic transformation and is an essential growth pole of urban economic development. Based on the county-level panel data of Guangxi from 2005 to 2017, this study contributes to the discussion by exploring the effects of development zones on economic development in developed regions. Additionally, this study further attempts to illustrate the character of the agglomeration effect built on development zones and try to reveal the significant influence factors of the effect of development zones on the economy. Through the progressive difference-in-difference (DID) model approach, empirical results reveal that the development zone has a negative effect on the local economy within three years after its establishment, and the “development zone fever” significantly reduces the potential for regional economic growth. With the decrease in the established frequency of development zones, the effect of the development zone on economic growth becomes positive. However, this promoting effect is unsustainable because the agglomeration effect of development zones is mainly caused by the “clusters of enterprises”. Certain industrial agglomeration and technological capabilities are essential prerequisites for development zones to promote economic growth, while the negative impact appears in a highly competitive environment caused by excessive government intervention. Therefore, the key to maintaining the sustainability of development zones’ competition is to strengthen the assessment standard of survival of the fittest for enterprises, and promote the agglomeration of high-end industries by improving the selection effect of development zones. These findings have great potential in policy making and can be used as a resource by policymakers to promote the sustainable development of less developed regions.

This study finds that the livestock environmental regulation (LER) imposed by China has promoted the spatial agglomeration of hog production in the administrative border areas, thereby posing a threat to ecological sustainability. We apply the difference-in-differences-in-differences (DDD) method to a unique dataset in counties along the main stem and 38 important tributaries of the Yangtze River basin in China from 2008 to 2019. Specifically, the slaughter volume and density of hogs in the most downstream border counties of a city are 7.87% and 9.56% higher, respectively, than those of otherwise identical counties within the same municipal jurisdiction. Conversely, in the most upstream border counties, these figures decreased by 12.02% and 15.35%, respectively. Moreover, we find that the fixed capital investment in the most downstream border counties is 22.54% less than that in otherwise identical counties. These findings imply that LER has driven the agglomeration of hog production in downstream administrative border areas, inadvertently shifting the pollution burden to these regions and posing potential challenges to the effectiveness of environmental policies.