《产业经济研究》2020年第1期

题目：Exploratory innovation and enterprise total factor productivity

摘要：Exploratory innovation, as the source of technological progress, is of great importance for enterprises to enhance total factor productivity. This paper conducts empirical test on the effect of exploratory innovation on total factor productivity of enterprises using the data of A-share listed companies in stock markets of Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2013 to2018. The research finds that: (1)Exploratory innovation has an “inflection point effect” on enterprise total factor productivity and it shows a positive “U” shape. It means that the occupation of main business resources by exploratory innovation will have a negative impact on enterprise total factor productivity when the input of R&D resources is at a low level. However, as researches are carried out and the results are shown, exploratory innovation will accelerate the growth of enterprise total factor productivity. (2)Heterogeneity will affect enterprise innovation motivation and internal resource allocation. After grouping according to the nature of property rights, there exists no significant difference in the degree of the impact of exploratory innovation on enterprise total factor productivity; After grouping according to the nature of the industry, compared with non-R&D enterprises, the “U” shape relationship between R&D enterprise exploratory innovation and enterprise total factor productivity is more obvious. (3)Tax preference and improvement of internal control quality are conductive to improving enterprise resource endowment and innovation efficiency, and then can effectively alleviate the negative effects of exploratory innovation on enterprise total factor productivity.

关键词：exploratory innovation; R&D expenditure expensing; total factor productivity; heterogeneous enterprise; tax preference; internal control quality；

创新点：The possible marginal contributions of this paper are mainly: (1) adopting the amount of expensed R&D expenditures to measure the exploratory innovation of enterprises, which is more in line with the concept of exploratory innovation and can more accurately measure the innovative exploration conducted by enterprises in new fields; (2) including exploratory innovation and total factor productivity of enterprises into the same research framework, systematically analyzing the impact of exploratory innovation behavior on total factor productivity of enterprises (2) the effects of exploratory innovation and total factor productivity are included in the same research framework, and the effects of exploratory innovation on total factor productivity are systematically analyzed, which enriches the outcome variables of duality innovation theory; (3) the effects of tax incentives and internal control quality on the relationship between exploratory innovation and total factor productivity are explored from the internal and external environment of enterprises, which have practical implications for the government to make policy adjustments and the improvement of the internal environment of enterprises.。

结论：At this stage, the economic development approach characterized by factor accumulation has been played out to the point of no return. Suppose China wants to avoid suffering from the development problems of the middle-income stage. In that case, it must rely on the improvement of economic efficiency, i.e., total factor productivity, and shift the economic growth approach from factor-driven to innovation-driven. Technological progress and core technologies brought by exploratory innovation are the sharp edges China urgently needs to break the "technological blockade" of developed countries. Based on this, this paper empirically examines the impact of exploratory innovation on enterprise total factor productivity and the heterogeneous effect of exploratory innovation on enterprise total factor productivity among enterprises with different property rights and different industries, using data of A-share non-financial listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2013 to 2018, and further explores the impact of exploratory innovation on enterprise total factor productivity represented by tax incentives and internal control quality. We further explore the moderating effects of internal and external environmental factors on the relationship between exploratory innovation and total factor productivity, represented by tax incentives and internal control quality. The empirical results show that: (1) there is an "inflection point effect" on the impact of exploratory innovation on total factor productivity, which is in a positive "U" shape. That is, exploratory innovation will negatively affect total factor productivity when the investment level of innovation resources is low. Still, when the research crosses a certain threshold, exploratory innovation will hurt total factor productivity. However, when the research breaks through a certain point, exploratory innovation can significantly promote enterprise total factor productivity growth. (2) The heterogeneity of firms affects their innovation motivation and internal resource allocation. According to the nature of ownership, the relationship between exploratory innovation and total factor productivity is "U" shaped in both state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises, and there is no significant difference between the two; according to the nature of the industry, the relationship between exploratory innovation and total factor productivity is more "U" shaped in R&D enterprises than in non-R&D enterprises. "The U-shaped relationship between R&D firms' exploratory innovation and total factor productivity is more evident than that of non-R&D firms. (3) Further study finds that tax incentives and internal control quality can help to improve resource endowment and innovation efficiency, which can effectively mitigate the negative effect of exploratory innovation on total factor productivity.

Based on the above findings, this paper proposes the following policy recommendations: First, to achieve exploratory innovation, enterprises need to break through the "U" shape inflection point. Before the inflection point, experimental innovation cannot create value for enterprises, which will have a negative impact on the total factor productivity of enterprises. However, once the inflection point is broken, the knowledge accumulation and technology improvement brought by exploratory innovation will gradually appear and lead enterprises to enter new technological fields, which will improve their long-term competitiveness and future earnings. Therefore, enterprises should have more patience and persistence when choosing innovation strategies and formulate long-term development strategies. Second, firms generally do not innovate enough due to the "spillover effect," high risk, and uncertainty of input and output. Still, exploratory innovation can make a significant contribution to industrial upgrading and accelerated economic growth. Therefore, the government should create a favorable external environment to stimulate firms to engage in exploratory innovation. Specifically, tax incentives, as an essential means for the government to regulate macroeconomics, can reduce taxes and burdens for enterprises. On this basis, the government should increase support for high-tech industries, expand the scope of tax incentives, and increase government subsidies as an incentive for enterprises to increase investment in technological innovation. Third, the internal control system is an essential mechanism for enterprises to promote the efficiency of strategic decision-making implementation. A high-level internal control system can significantly reduce enterprises' operational and financial risks by optimizing resource allocation, improving the transparency of information, and increasing the speed of cash flow recovery, thus effectively mitigating the negative impact of exploratory innovation on daily production and operation. To this end, enterprises should improve the construction of internal control systems and enhance the coordination of resources to grasp the initiative of R&D in the fiercely competitive product market.

题目：How do industry policies affect enterprise competitiveness in the Yangtze River Delta region?

摘要：This paper studies the effects and specific mechanisms of industry policies affecting enterprise competitiveness in Yangtze River Delta region from the perspective of government intervention. The results show that industry policies play a role in enhancing enterprise competitiveness and the influence reflects heterogeneity. Specifically, from the perspective of province differences, the effects of local industrial policies in Shanghai are the best, followed by Anhui Province, and then Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province. From the perspective of the nature of property rights, industry policies are conducive to enhancing the competitiveness of state-owned enterprises but the effects are not obvious; from the perspective of the enterprise life cycle, enterprise competitiveness at growth stage and maturity stage supported by industry policies has improved significantly, and the effects on enterprises in the recession period are not obvious. The paper further explores the resource allocation mechanism, innovation incentive mechanism and market competition mechanism during the implementation of industry policies. The study finds that government subsidies, tax incentives and innovation incentives under the support of industry policies can promote enterprise competitiveness. But the effects of bank credit and market competition are not obvious. This paper identifies the causal relationship between industry policies and enterprise competitiveness, and clarifies the mechanism of effect on enterprise competitiveness by industry policies, which have practical significance for formulating industry policies and improving regional competitiveness in the Yangtze River Delta region in the future.

关键词：government intervention; industrial policy; enterprise competitiveness; Yangtze River Delta region; heterogeneity; mechanism of action

创新点：Based on the current research results and their shortcomings, this paper argues that it is necessary to further examine the microeconomic effects of industrial policy from the perspective of enterprise competitiveness in the Yangtze River Delta region and to analyze the internal influence mechanism of the relationship between industrial policy and enterprise competitiveness to maximize the efficacy of industrial policy through the improvement and coordination of internal tools. Compared with previous studies, the contribution of this paper is mainly reflected in three aspects: First, from the perspective of industrial policy, there have been abundant studies on the relationship between industrial policy and enterprise behavior and performance, but there are fewer studies on the microeconomic effects of industrial policy from the perspective of enterprise competitiveness, this paper expands the research related to the impact of industrial policy implementation from the perspective of enterprise competitiveness and finds that industrial policy has an essential effect on enterprise competitiveness. It has a significant impact, and on this basis, we analyze in-depth the heterogeneous differences in industrial policy implementation and the specific mechanisms, which enriches the literature on the relationship between industrial policy and enterprise competitiveness. Second, previous studies have focused more on micro-enterprise level influencing factors and less on how government intervention affects regional enterprise competitiveness from the perspective of enterprise competitiveness. The business development of enterprises is embedded in the national macro-institutional environment, and so is the enhancement of enterprise competitiveness. Starting from government intervention, this paper studies the effect of local industrial policies on enterprise competitiveness and the specific mechanisms, which enriches the relevant research on enterprise competitiveness. Third, from the perspective of regional development, in November 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed to support the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region to be elevated to a national strategy, and academic discussions related to how to achieve high-quality development in the Yangtze River Delta region and thus improve its regional competitiveness have become increasingly enthusiastic. From the dual perspectives of government macro-control and enterprise competitiveness, this paper discusses how industrial policies can help improve the competitiveness of enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region, which is of great practical significance for the better and faster development of the Yangtze River Delta region.

结论：This paper takes listed companies in the Yangtze River Delta region from 2011-2018 as the research object and explores in depth the influence of industrial policy on enterprise competitiveness. The results found that industrial policy has a facilitating effect on improving enterprise competitiveness, and this effect is heterogeneous. Specifically, in terms of regional differences, the impact of local industrial policy is optimal in Shanghai, followed by Anhui Province, and then Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province; in terms of the characteristics of enterprises themselves, industrial policy has a facilitating effect on the competitiveness improvement of state-owned enterprises, growth and maturity stage enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region. However, the effect is not obvious for non-state-owned enterprises and declining stage enterprises. The mechanism study finds that government subsidies, tax incentives, and innovation incentives supported by industrial policies have a facilitating effect on the competitiveness improvement of enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region. In contrast, bank credit and market competition have an insignificant impact on the competitiveness improvement of enterprises.

The findings of this paper have implications for future industrial policy formulation and enterprise competitiveness enhancement in the Yangtze River Delta region.First of all, since Shanghai has the best industrial policy implementation effect among the three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta region, Shanghai must play the leading role in the process of integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta and should make more extensive experience publicity on how to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of government regulation and control, and improve the efficiency of policy implementation; furthermore, in order to achieve Further, to achieve higher quality integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta region, it is necessary to continuously break down administrative barriers between areas and coordinate the interests of each area, and to this end, the formulation of industrial policies in the area should be gradually raised to the regional or central government level, to ensure the unity and coordination of industrial policies on market regulation.Second, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the symposium on private economy held in November 2018 that the private economy has been instrumental in China's economic development. The private economy is crucial to the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Delta region. Still, this paper finds that the effect of industrial policies on improving the competitiveness of non-state enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region is not significant, which puts forward higher requirements for the government to make policies more beneficial to private enterprises when formulating and implementing industrial procedures to improve the vitality of private enterprises.Again, the research in this paper shows that there are differences in the implementation effects of industrial policies at different stages of the life cycle of enterprises, therefore, when allocating resources to enterprises, attention should be paid to dynamic adjustment, and the government should make resources flow more to enterprises in the growth and maturity stages and rectify enterprises in the decline stage in a timely manner to improve the efficiency of resource allocation.Finally, regarding the specific mechanism of industrial policy implementation, the government should more widely play the active role of government subsidies, tax preferences, and innovation incentives; adjust the limits of the use of credit mechanisms to curb the high situation of corporate debt, and continue to insist on deleveraging in the supply-side structural reform; improve the market competition mechanism, create a fair, competitive market environment, and gradually make the market play a decisive role in resource allocation, thus Make the transition from selective industrial policy to functional industrial policy in the formulation of industrial policy.

 

题目：Resource misallocation, enterprise entry and exit, and total factor productivity growth

摘要：Resource misallocation is an important factor influencing the economic gap between developed countries and developing countries. This paper constructs a dynamic micro-mechanism between resource misallocation, enterprise entry and exit, and total factor productivity, and makes an empirical analysis by using the micro data of the industrial enterprise database from 1998 to 2007. The study shows that: (1) Resource misallocation will establish exogenous industry barriers and cause different marginal productivity between enterprises, which will directly affect the improvement of enterprise total factor productivity. In addition, higher tax rates and financing costs will further aggravate the distortion effect of resource misallocation. (2) Industry barriers cause enterprise to choose low total factor productivity, which can alleviate the income distortion effect, endogenously determine the industry entry and exit thresholds, and cause the market to carry too many poor efficient enterprises. This not only restrains the normal alternation effect of market mechanism on enterprises, but also squeezes the profit share of enterprises and affects enterprise technology investment, which ultimately leads to the slow growth of enterprise total factor productivity. After replacing the core indicators and processing endogenous issues that may affect the results, the empirical results are still steady. The sub-sample study also finds that the improvement of resource misallocation has a more significant impact on non-state-owned enterprises. The research conclusion plays an important enlightening role in China’s economic transformation and upgrading and realizing the goal of high-quality development.

关键词：resource misallocation; entry threshold; exit threshold; industry barriers; total factor productivity

创新点：This paper has the following marginal contributions: First, it enriches the theoretical research in this area by establishing a dynamic mechanism between resource mismatch, firm entry and exit, and total factor productivity. Drawing on the study of Bento and Restuccia , this paper makes appropriate adjustments to the assumption of constant returns to scale of firm technology investment. It discusses the link between industry threshold (the number of firms in an industry) and firm total factor productivity growth when the returns to scale of technology investment are constant, increasing and decreasing, respectively. It is found that when the returns to scale of technology investment decreases, resource mismatch will lower the industry threshold, resulting in the entry of firms with lower total factor productivity and their reluctance to exit the industry, and the existence of a large number of inefficient firms in the sector, which lowers the overall total factor productivity of the industry. At the same time, many inefficient enterprises will also change the profit distribution pattern among enterprises, inhibit the technological innovation investment of high-efficiency enterprises, and reduce the industry's total factor productivity growth rate. Second, the industry threshold is endogenous. Industry threshold is the endogenous result of rational choice of enterprises under the constraint of resource mismatch. Compared with exogenous industry barriers, industry thresholds endogenous to resource mismatch will further aggravate the technology distortion effect of resource mismatch.

结论：Efficiency loss from resource mismatch is an important factor affecting the income gap between countries. First, this paper constructs a theoretical model to analyze the dynamic micro mechanism between resource mismatch, firm entry and exit, and total factor productivity growth. First, resource mismatch creates exogenous industry barriers, resulting in inefficient resource flows to efficient sectors, different marginal productivity among firms, and lower total factor productivity growth rates. Second, exogenous industry barriers create a new budget constraint on firms' entry and exit decisions. At this point, choosing a lower TFP to enter the industry can reduce the degree of income distortion of enterprises, but this will lead to a lower entry and exit barrier of the industry as a whole, resulting in too many enterprises in the industry, which affects the profit distribution and technology investment among enterprises and further reduces the growth rate of total factor productivity of enterprises. Finally, the theoretical hypothesis is tested using microdata from the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database. After dealing with the endogeneity problem in the model with the instrumental variables approach and replacing the measures of the core variables, the measurement results remain robust.

Based on the above research, this paper explicitly proposes the following policy recommendations: first, reduce exogenous industry barriers and promote fair competition. On the one hand, exogenous industry barriers will directly form resource mismatch and cause efficiency loss; on the other hand, they will also change enterprises' expectations and indirectly cause efficiency loss. Therefore, it is necessary to break the exogenous industry barriers. For example, we should gradually relax the access restrictions of the banking market and encourage and guide the private capital to participate in the competition of the banking industry. The participation of private capital in competition can not only provide a financing platform for SMEs, directly optimize resource allocation and promote technological innovation of SMEs, but also break the monopoly position of state-owned banks and make them give part of their profits to private capital, and change the business expectations of state-owned banks, forcing the state-owned banking industry to reform and innovate to participate in market competition and improve production efficiency. Second, optimize the implementation process of industrial policy. The government formulates industrial policies based on the starting point of promoting enterprise innovation and developing the local economy; however, the implementation process of industrial policies in some regions is still accompanied by enterprise-scale discrimination and ownership discrimination, resulting in differences in the implementation of the same industrial policy among enterprises of different scales and different ownership. This discriminatory treatment may make high-efficiency enterprises unable to get policy support; low-efficiency enterprises are unwilling to exit the market after getting policy support, undermining the role of the market mechanism, resulting in industrial policy does not work well. Policy implementation supervision and enterprise feedback mechanisms can be appropriately introduced in industrial policy implementation to break enterprise-scale discrimination and ownership discrimination, screen out enterprises with innovative capabilities, and improve the quality of regional economic development.

 

题目：Can information sharing enhance enterprise productivity? Evidence from survey data of Chinese manufacturing enterprises

摘要：This paper discusses the impact of information sharing on enterprise productivity from both external and internal dimensions using 2012 World Bank survey data of Chinese manufacturing companies. The results show that both external information sharing and internal information sharing have a significant and steady positive promoting effect on enterprise productivity when other conditions are controlled to be unchanged. External information sharing has a stronger promoting effect on enterprise productivity than internal information sharing. For the endogeneity problems that possibly exist in the measurement model, this paper uses processing effect model and panel matching data of listed companies for alleviation and verification, which improves the reliability of the research conclusions to a greater degree. Heterogeneity analysis results show that the impact of information sharing on enterprise productivity are different with regional ownership, industry nature, firm size, and enterprise age. Analysis of the mechanism of effect shows that internal and external information sharing can enhance enterprise productivity mainly by promoting product innovation and management innovation. The paper finds after considering the corresponding environmental factors that the informatization level, legal environment and degree of marketization play an opposite regulating role in the productivity effect of external information sharing and internal information sharing.

关键词：external information sharing; internal information sharing; enterprise productivity; product innovation; management innovation

创新点：In conclusion, the current literature lacks a direct study of the relationship between information sharing and firm productivity. This paper attempts to make a breakthrough in the following aspects: firstly, it discards the multiple transmission mechanisms at the supply chain level and directly explores the relationship between information sharing and firm productivity, which is more intuitive and concrete; secondly, unlike the macro and industry aggregated data, this paper uses the 2012 Chinese enterprise survey data provided by the World Bank to explore the impact of information sharing on firm productivity at the micro-level, which reflects the dynamic relationship between information sharing and productivity more clearly. Finally, for the possible endogeneity problem in the econometric model, this paper tries to adopt the treatment effect model and the panel matching data of listed companies to improve the reliability and applicability of the research findings.

结论：Using data from a 2012 World Bank survey on Chinese manufacturing firms, this paper explores the impact of information sharing on firm productivity in both external and internal dimensions. The findings show that controlling for other conditions, both internal and external information sharing has a significant and robust contribution to firm productivity. The gift of external information sharing to firm productivity is greater than that of internal information sharing. The results of the heterogeneity analysis in this paper indicate that the impact of information sharing on firm productivity varies by regional affiliation, industry nature, fit size, and healthy age. In addition, the mechanism of action analysis reveals that the channels through which internal and external information sharing affects firm productivity are mainly vital to product innovation and management innovation. After considering the corresponding environmental factors, it is found that the moderating effects of the level of informationization, legal environment, and the degree of marketization also differ in the productivity effects of internal and external information sharing. The policy recommendations of this paper are as follows.

For the enterprises themselves: first, abandon the self-centered opportunism and speculative tendency, establish a big picture concept, actively participate in external information sharing activities, communicate and interact with external market participants, get in touch with advanced production technology and development direction, enhance the thickness and precision of corporate culture, improve the level of technological innovation and product development capability, and promote the enhancement of enterprise productivity; second, create an enterprise Secondly, create an internal information sharing platform to support internal business communication and employee communication, strengthen internal management innovation, promote internal process reengineering, enhance corporate cohesion, and promote corporate productivity; finally, develop regular training and learning programs for corporate employees to improve internal digestion and absorption of external information resources acquired and combine them with their own characteristics to promote corporate productivity. Finally, we will develop regular training and learning programs for employees to enhance their ability to digest and assimilate external information resources and combine them with their characteristics to promote productivity.

For the government: firstly, it should encourage enterprises to actively participate in information sharing, especially external information sharing activities, promote the construction of information and communication technology and other infrastructures according to local conditions, improve hardware conditions, and lay the foundation for the implementation of internal and external information sharing; secondly, when formulating relevant policies, it should comprehensively consider the cooperation of other factors, create a sound legal environment, and significantly accelerate the construction and improve the In particular, we should accelerate the construction and improve the protection system of intellectual property rights, maintain the vital status of information assets, formulate corresponding disciplinary mechanisms, and crackdown on information leakage, falsification and other speculative behaviors to ensure the regular play of information sharing effects; finally, we should grasp the strength of market regulation, improve the market-oriented environment, enhance the market-oriented level, and provide the support of the general environment for the implementation of enterprise information sharing, etc.

题目：Does market segmentation cause overcapacity?

摘要：The issue of overcapacity is one of the topics highly concerned by the government and academia. This paper explains insufficiencies of research from the perspective of government action. Has market segmentation under the background of fiscal decentralization caused overcapacity? How does market segmentation affect overcapacity? Answering the above questions will be an inevitable requirement for achieving high-quality economic development. This paper discusses the relationship between market segmentation and capacity utilization and its internal mechanism based on micro data of Chinese industrial enterprises. The study finds that the domestic market segmentation shows up a “supporting hand”in enterprise production activities; in terms of the transmission path, market segmentation will improve the capacity utilization rate by reducing enterprise size, increasing enterprise profitability and industry market concentration, and reduce capacity utilization rate by enhancing subsidize revenue and restraining enterprise export; in terms of heterogeneity, market segmentation plays a promoting role in capacity utilization rate in the short run, but it is not conducive to improving capacity utilization rate in the long run. At the same time, market segmentation has an obvious promoting effect on east regions and areas with low and weak state-owned enterprises, but it is not conducive to improving capacity utilization rate of state-owned enterprises. On this basis, this paper proposes corresponding policy recommendations.

关键词：market segmentation; overcapacity; capacity utilization rate; government action; heterogeneity

创新点：Compared with the established literature, the marginal contribution of this paper may be mainly reflected in the following three aspects: First, this paper explores the impact of market segmentation on enterprise overcapacity from the perspective of governmental behavior with Chinese characteristics, which will not only help to extend and enrich the relevant research on overcapacity but also help to open up the problem of enterprise overcapacity under the strategic behavior of local government "black box." While the existing studies on the factors influencing overcapacity focus on the internal behavior of enterprises, market demand, and industrial policies, and their conclusions carry a certain degree of universality, this paper focuses on the influence of governmental behavior with Chinese characteristics on overcapacity in the context of fiscal decentralization. Second, this paper verifies the complexity of the intrinsic relationship between market segmentation and overcapacity in economic transformation and provides a micro-explanation of whether local government behavior induces enterprise overcapacity. At present, there is not much research literature on the relationship between market segmentation and enterprise overcapacity. Although individual scholars have explained the relationship between steel product market segmentation and overcapacity at the micro-level , they have neglected issues such as the role of factor market segmentation and the intrinsic inter-industry linkages. In this paper, we not only theoretically sort out the inherent link between market segmentation and overcapacity but also empirically find that market segmentation and overcapacity are positively correlated, and the transmission channels are diversified and concealed based on the construction of a market segmentation index that includes both commodity and factor markets. Third, this paper provides new evidence for the "bias" of governmental behavior. Considering the robust targeting of local government protection, this paper further verifies the relationship between market segmentation and capacity utilization under the differences in ownership, industry, time and space, and motivation, which will provide empirical evidence for local governments to implement specific policies.

结论：In the context of fiscal decentralization, local government behavior in market segmentation has become one of the important influencing factors of overcapacity. This paper investigates the effect of market segmentation on capacity utilization rate and its underlying mechanism under different circumstances by using micro-enterprise data from the database of Chinese industrial enterprises. The main findings include: First, market segmentation shows a "supporting hand" in the production activities of enterprises, i.e., market segmentation and capacity utilization rate show a positive relationship. Secondly, the mechanism of market segmentation on capacity utilization is complex, and the transmission path has diversified and hidden characteristics. Market segmentation enhances capacity utilization by reducing enterprise size, increasing enterprise profitability and industry market concentration, and reducing capacity utilization by increasing enterprise subsidy income and inhibiting enterprise exports. Third, because local governments tend to implement market segmentation with a particular bias, the impact of market segmentation on capacity utilization has obvious heterogeneity. Specifically, from the perspective of ownership differences, market segmentation will significantly reduce the capacity utilization rate of state-owned enterprises; from the standpoint of industry differences, the effect of market segmentation on the ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry is not apparent, and the production activities of enterprises in the textile industry, coal mining and washing industry, and non-metallic mineral products industry show a "supporting hand. " From the perspective of spatial and temporal differences, market segmentation only in the short term on the capacity utilization rate has a catalytic effect, in a long time is not conducive to the capacity utilization rate. For the three major regions, only the eastern region is consistent with the national effect. Market segmentation positively affects capacity utilization in areas with low fiscal motivation from the perspective of implementation motivation. While the impact of market segmentation on capacity utilization is significantly positive regardless of the SOE interest motive, the contribution of areas with weaker SOE interest motive is significantly higher than that of regions with stronger SOE interest motive.

Facing the actual situation that commodity markets are gradually integrated, and factor markets have obvious time lags, institutional factors are an essential breakthrough to crack domestic overcapacity and the key to achieving high-quality economic growth. Based on this, the policy recommendations of this paper are as follows: firstly, the government should further deepen the reform of the fiscal and taxation system, improve the matching degree between financial power, affairs, and financial resources, guide healthy competition among local governments, and provide a good institutional environment for the full and free flow of resources across regions; secondly, the relationship between the government and the market needs to be coordinated to solve the overcapacity. While focusing on system construction, the government should also further clarify its responsibilities, reduce undue government intervention in micro subjects, and achieve optimization and upgrading of industries through the organic combination of practical market and competent government; finally, optimal allocation of resources is one of the important means to enhance capacity within industries and rationalize capacity between sectors, and in the future development, it is not only necessary to continue to weaken the barriers to the cross-regional flow of commodities It is more important to eliminate the hidden obstacles to the cross-regional flow of production factors and other resources and create a favorable external environment for the cross-regional flow of resources.

 

 

题目：Stepping towards innovation in agglomeration: a study on agglomeration economic effect in patent production

摘要：This paper studies the impact of industrial agglomeration on enterprise innovation efficiency based on the matched data of China’s industrial enterprise database and patent database with enterprise-level panel data from 2001, 2005,2006, and 2007 as samples to discuss whether industrial agglomeration can promote China’s goal of accelerating the construction of an innovative country. The study finds that industrial agglomeration has significantly facilitated patent production efficiency. Among them, the localization economy is significant and the urbanization economy is not significant. Averagely, the localization economy has explained the 9. 6% increase in the logarithm of the number of Chinese enterprise patents from 2001 to 2007. The study also finds that a higher level of Ｒ＆D expenditure or human capital are conductive for enterprises to realize localization economy. The research results show that industrial agglomeration is an important factor influencing the rapid growth in the number of patents acquired by Chinese enterprises in recent years, and it is conductive for the whole nation to enhance its innovation efficiency. To make better use of the agglomeration economic effect, enterprise sand local governments should pay attention to increasing the Ｒ＆D expenditure scale and introducing high-skilled talents.

关键词：industrial agglomeration; patent production function; localization economy; urbanization economy; technology spillover

创新点：This paper mainly conducts an empirical study on the above issues based on the matched data of the Chinese industrial enterprise database and patent database. For enterprise patent production, the economic effect of agglomeration mainly comes from the localization economy, and the role of urbanization economy is not significant; enterprises increase their R&D investment or improve their human capital level to benefit themselves from the localization economy. The findings of this paper suggest that industrial agglomeration promotes the rapid industrialization of China and contributes to the construction of an innovative country in China. The main contributions of this paper include three aspects: firstly, the existing literature on the growth of patent quantity does not test the effect of industrial agglomeration on patent quantity, while the results of this paper show that the localization economy is an important influencing factor for the growth of patent quantity of Chinese enterprises, and its agglomeration economy effect explains 9.6% of the logarithmic growth of patent quantity of Chinese enterprises since 2001 to 2007, while the impact of urbanization economy effect is not significant; secondly, the literature using Chinese data to study the relationship between agglomeration and innovation is still very lacking, and the research in this paper helps to more fully understand the relationship between industrial accumulation and innovation in China; finally, this paper examines the mechanism of agglomeration economy acting on enterprises and finds that the scale of enterprise R&D and the level of human capital have significant effects on the ability of enterprises to absorb the agglomeration economy effect.

结论：Industrial agglomeration is a remarkable model for the rapid development of industrialization in China. Currently, China's economy is in the process of transition from traditional investment-driven to innovation-driven. Can the development mode of industrial agglomeration promote the construction of an innovative country? This question has not only important theoretical significance but also has realistic policy implications. This paper analyzes the impact of industrial agglomeration on enterprise patent production efficiency using a large sample of firm-level data to try to answer this question.

The research in this paper finds that industrial agglomeration improves the efficiency of enterprise patent output mainly through the economic localization effect. This suggests that in the new era of building an innovative country, industrial agglomeration is conducive to promoting the transformation of China's economic growth model to an innovation-driven model, and industrial agglomeration policy should remain an important policy tool for China's economic development. Meanwhile, if we start to improve patent R&D efficiency, industrial agglomeration policy should encourage firms' geographical concentration in the same two-digit industries. The findings of this paper suggest that the rapid growth in the number of patents granted in the last decade or so maybe mainly due to the improvement in patent R&D efficiency brought about by industrial agglomeration. This is because the estimation results show that about 9.6% of the logarithmic increase in the number of patents from 2001 to 2007 for the average firm in the sample comes from the economic effect of localization in agglomeration economies. Thus, it can be seen that industrial agglomeration plays a substantial role in contributing to the rapid growth of the number of patents, and the study in this paper deepens the understanding of this phenomenon.

The study in this paper also finds that for the R&D of patents, the agglomeration economy effect is more significant for localized economies than urbanized economies. This finding is consistent with the theory related to the patent production function. According to the idea of the patent production function, the primary input in the patent production process comes from the R&D expenditure of the own enterprise and the R&D spillover from other related enterprises. Enterprises in the same industry have a high degree of similarity in both products and production technologies. They thus are more likely to learn from and inspire each other, resulting in continuous improvement of products and production technologies, which is reflected in the growth of the number of patents.

Another finding of this study is that firms' access to the economic effects of aggregation is not unconditional. Those firms with larger R&D activities or higher levels of human capital obtain more substantial localization economic effects. This finding helps firms and local governments in their policymaking. Firms should be aware that increased R&D expenditures directly lead to increased technological knowledge and help them better absorb the economic effects of agglomeration in the industry to improve R&D efficiency, while increased human capital levels also help them absorb the financial impact agglomeration improve R&D efficiency. For local governments, while formulating policies to encourage the aggregation of enterprises in profitable industries, they should also increase government support for enterprises' R&D. At the same time, efforts should be made to eliminate institutional barriers to the flow of talents to facilitate enterprises to attract outstanding skills and promote intra-regional technology transfer and diffusion.

The findings of this paper allow us to infer, to some extent, the relative importance of the three channels through which agglomeration economies work (technology spillovers, more efficient matching of firms and employees, and shared input factors). The study finds that the economic effects of urbanization are not statistically significant. For both variables of the level of urbanization agglomeration, the coefficients are statistically insignificant for both industry size outside the industry in which the firm is located and industry diversity outside the sector in which the firm is located. This result implies that technology spillovers across industries and more efficient matching between firms and employees do not systematically improve firms' patent productivity. Also, some markets for R&D input factors that firms can share (e.g., intermediary services for patent applications) may not have been better developed along with industrial agglomeration during the sample period. This further suggests that the economic effect of localized agglomeration may mainly originate from the technology spillover from firms within the industry and the more efficient matching of firms with R&D personnel. As for the relative importance of these two channels, it is not yet possible to test them due to the lack of information on firms' R&D personnel. We expect to explore this issue further in the future.

 

题目：Does financial geography affect urban innovation capability?

摘要：Under the background of the heterogeneous and discontinuous spatial distribution of financial resources in China, this paper discusses the effect of spatial agglomeration of financial resources and their spatial interaction on urban innovation capability, conducts empirical test on data using statistics from 277 prefecture-level cities and above in China from2003 to 2016. The results show that: (1) At the national level, financial agglomeration has significantly enhanced urban innovation capacity. In the meantime, this positive effect is restricted by location, city size, and resource endowment. The financial agglomeration of eastern, central and western cities shows a significantly positive correlation with innovation level, and eastern cities play a greater role. The financial agglomerations of large and larger cities have a significantly positive impact on the innovation capacity, while the impact of small and medium-sized cities is not significant. Compared with resource-based cities, the financial agglomeration of non-resource-based cities has a more significant positive impact on the innovation capacity. (2) After mechanism inspection through the mediating effect model, the paper finds that financial agglomeration can promote the enhancement of urban innovation capacity through market effect and structural effect. (3)After testing the interaction between urban innovation and the spatial spillover effect of urban innovation by further using the generalized spatial autoregressive model (SAC) , this paper finds that there exists an obvious“siphon effect”between urban innovation in China and financial agglomeration is one of the important driving forces for the inhibiting effect of such inter-city innovation. The empirical conclusion provides important references for giving full play to the role of the financial system’s resource allocation in improving innovation performance, and specifically considering the spatial interaction of financial resource supply in formulating policies.

关键词：financial agglomeration; innovation activity; urban heterogeneity; mediating effect; spatial interaction; siphon effect

创新点：This paper may have the following contributions: first, unlike established studies that limit the scope to the provincial level, this paper focuses on the city level, as evidenced by empirically examining the impact of financial agglomeration on urban innovation using data from Chinese cities at the prefecture-level and above from 2003-2016. Also, this paper examines whether the above paths change under the constraints of location, city size, and resource endowment. Second, the financial system may act directly on the innovation performance of cities, such as through capital supply but may also induce innovation activities by expanding the scale of market demand or promoting industrial upgrading. Further, this paper identifies the transmission channels of market effects and structural effects, which is a useful addition to the existing literature. Third, to examine the impact of the spatial interaction of financial agglomeration on regional innovation capacity, this paper employs a generalized spatial autoregressive model (SAC) to explore the spatial interaction of urban innovation and the spatial spillover effect of economic geography on urban innovation. It is found that innovation activities have a spatial siphon effect, and financial aggregation is one of the thrusts of negative innovation spillover. Suppose the possible different effects of economic geography on the enhancement of China's innovation level at this stage are ignored. In that case, reform ideas and policy measures will not achieve the expected results. Therefore, the empirical findings of this paper provide a reference basis for giving full play to the important role of the financial system in enhancing innovation performance and focusing on the spatial interaction effect of financial resource supply in policy formulation.

结论：In the context of promoting the innovation-driven development strategy and deepening supply-side reform, this paper analyzes in-depth the impact of financial agglomeration and its spatial interaction on urban innovation capacity based on the fact that the distribution of economic resources in China is non-homogeneous and discontinuous, and conducts an empirical test using statistical data of 277 prefecture-level and above cities in China from 2003 to 2016. The main findings of this paper are: first, the regression results at the national level show that financial agglomeration has a stable positive relationship with urban innovation capacity. However, further from the perspective of city heterogeneity, it is found that the positive effect is constrained by the region where it is located, city size, and resource endowment. Specifically, financial agglomeration in both eastern and central-western cities has a significant positive relationship with innovation level, and the effect is more significant in eastern cities; for city size, financial agglomeration in large and above cities has an innovation-enhancing effect, while it is not substantial in small and medium-sized cities; for resource endowment, economic agglomeration in non-resource-based cities has a significant positive impact on innovation, while it is not substantial in resource-based cities. Second, the results of the mechanism test indicate that financial agglomeration enhances urban innovation capacity by expanding the scale of market demand and optimizing industrial structure. Third, to examine the interaction between urban innovation and the spatial spillover effect of financial agglomeration on urban innovation, a generalized spatial autoregressive model (SAC) is estimated. Its effect is decomposed to find that there is a significant innovation inhibitory effect among Chinese cities. Financial agglomeration is one of the important driving forces of this intercity innovation inhibitory effect.

The above empirical findings provide policy recommendations with essential reference values for implementing and promoting the innovation-driven development strategy: (1) The enhancement of urban innovation capacity cannot be achieved without the support of the financial system, and expanding the supply of financial resources is a meaningful way to realize the innovation-driven growth model. In this regard, it is necessary to relax restrictions on financial market access, support and encourage the development of small and medium-sized financial institutions, expand the scale of capital supply while strengthening the competitiveness of the financial market dominated by state-owned banks, and give full play to the capital allocation function, risk diversification function and network economy effect of the financial market on regional innovation activities. At the same time, in addition to improving the indirect financing mechanism, it should also accelerate the construction of multi-level capital markets, enhance and strengthen the status of direct financing instruments in the financial system, and inject vitality into China's financial market, thus enhancing the financial system's ability to serve the innovative activities of enterprises. (2) The financial structure and financial system arrangement should be reasonably adjusted according to the characteristics of cities. The optimal financial system arrangement should also be different for cities with different location conditions, city size, or resource endowment. For eastern cities, large and above cities, or non-resource-based cities, the spatial layout of financial resources should be optimized, a multi-level and networked financial service system should be established, and the role of financial agglomeration in enhancing the innovation capacity of cities should be further exploited. For central and western cities, small and medium-sized cities or resource-based cities, on the one hand, local financial development should be promoted and improved to reduce the constraints of local small and medium-sized financial institutions in terms of market access and administrative approval while vigorously developing inclusive finance, revitalizing local credit stocks, and reducing financing costs and information asymmetry; on the other hand, in response to the current situation of relatively weak technological innovation capacity, local enterprises should be encouraged in an orderly and reasonable manner to local enterprises to increase innovation investment, improve R&D intensity, and create high-quality and high-efficiency innovation projects. (3) Give full play to the market effect and structural effect of financial density. The role of the financial system in long-term optimization of labor force structure and expansion of market demand scale should be emphasized to stimulate enterprises to increase new product R&D activities; the ability of the financial system to allocate resources among industries with different production efficiency and innovation capacity should be brought into play to guide the flow of financial resources to knowledge-intensive emerging industries, optimize industrial structure and promote technological innovation. (4) The findings of this paper show that there is an innovation inhibiting effect among cities, and financial aggregation is one of the driving forces for which exchanges and cooperation between regions should be strengthened. On the one hand, the central government needs to promote the formation of regional integration pattern from the height of institutional design; on the other hand, the financial network of the central cities in the region should be extended to the neighboring cities to revitalize the financial markets of the neighboring cities and form a spatial pattern of leading the cities from the point to the surface; meanwhile, the exchange and cooperation of innovation activities among cities should be strengthened to optimize the allocation of innovation factors in the region and narrow the gap of innovation capacity among cities.

题目：Agglomeration of productive service industries and urban economic performance

摘要：Developing modern service industry is the key to motivating China’s economic high-quality growth. Based on the panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities in domestic China from 2004 to 2017, this paper builds a comprehensive index evaluation system of urban economic performance from three dimensions of economic benefit, social benefit, resource and environmental benefit, and conducts empirical analysis of the impact of agglomeration of productive service industries on urban economic performance using a spatial Dubin model. The research shows that both specialized and diversified agglomerations of productive service industries are conductive to improving urban economic performance, and there exists significant positive external spillover effect. The spatial spillover boundaries are 350 km and 300 km, respectively, presenting intra-provincial spillover characteristics. Heterogeneity analysis finds that megacities and large cities with high-end productive service industries are suitable for diversified agglomeration model, while small and medium-sized cities with low-end productive service industries are suitable for specialized agglomeration model. The panel threshold regression results show that the opening up level shows significant threshold characteristics. The restraining effect of opening up level on the relationship between specialized agglomeration and urban economic performance can be established in megacities and large cities. While the restraining effect on the relationship between diversified agglomeration and urban economic performance significantly exist in small and medium-sized cities. Therefore, the agglomeration of the productive service industries should match urban economic development stage and industrial structure, rather than blindly pursuing the pilling-up development of productive service industries.

关键词：specialized agglomeration; diversified agglomeration; urban economic performance; spatial spillover boundary; panel threshold

创新点：In summary, previous studies have focused more on the impact of productive service accumulation on economic growth, while the literature directly exploring the relationship between effective service agglomeration and urban economic performance is still scarce. The only literature on the measurement of urban financial performance still uses total factor productivity, including multiple dimensions of representation. Therefore, the conclusions obtained by using a single indicator are naturally questionable. In addition, the concentration of productive services and openness are symbiotic, and the moderating role of transparency should be taken into account, which has been neglected in the existing studies. Given this, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of productive service industry agglomeration on urban economic performance using a spatial Durbin model with panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities from 2004-2017 as a sample. In addition, it explores the moderating role of external openness on the relationship between productive service industry agglomeration and urban economic performance on this basis. The possible marginal contributions of this paper are: first, constructing a comprehensive index evaluation system of urban financial performance from three dimensions of economic benefits, social benefits and resource, and environmental benefits, which can more accurately reflect the efficiency of urban economic operation and is more convincing compared with a single index; second, exploring the direct and indirect effects of the aggregation of production service industries from the spatial dimension and examining the impact of the aggregation of production service industries on urban economic performance based on the perspective of city-scale and industry level Third, we construct a panel threshold regression model with the level of openness to the outside world as the threshold variable to expand the relationship between productive service industry agglomeration and urban economic performance at a deeper level.

结论：This paper systematically sorts out the logical relationship between productive service industry agglomeration and city economic performance based on new economic geography and agglomeration externality theory, and empirically analyzes the impact of effective service industry agglomeration on city financial performance using SDM model based on panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities across China from 2004-2017. It is found that specialized and diversified aggregation of productive service industries helps to improve the economic performance of this city and neighboring cities. The indirect effect coefficients show that there is a spatially decaying boundary between specialized and diversified agglomerations. Furthermore, they exhibit intra-provincial spillover, with the distance thresholds of 350 km and 300 km, respectively, which means that the development of productive service industries and local industrialization needs may not be ideally matched, resulting in a more significant spatial spillover effect of specialized agglomeration than diversified agglomeration. In terms of heterogeneity, the impact of specialized aggregation on city economic performance is significantly different: in terms of city size heterogeneity, the effect of specialized aggregation on city financial performance decreases with increasing city size, while the opposite is true for diversified aggregation; in terms of industry heterogeneity, specialized agglomeration of low-end productive services and diversified agglomeration of effective high-end services help improve city economic performance, and the latter also has a significant positive external spillover.

On the whole, this paper concludes that megacities and large cities are suitable for the diversified clustering of high-end production service industries. In contrast, small and medium-sized towns are ideal for specialized clustering of low-end production service industries. The paper further conducts a panel threshold regression. The results show that the constraint effect of openness to the outside world on the relationship between specialization and urban economic performance holds in megacities and large cities. In contrast, the constraint effect on the relationship between diversification and urban financial performance exists significantly in small and medium-sized cities. Based on this, this paper proposes corresponding policy recommendations.

First, this paper finds that the aggregation of productive service industries helps improve the economic performance of this city and neighboring cities and shows the characteristics of intra-provincial spillover. Therefore, each city should take into account the synergy with neighboring cities while vigorously developing productive service industries, form an industrial layout with complementary advantages and clear division of labor to achieve mutual benefits and win-win situation, and actively promote the construction of information technology platform to transform tacit industry information into standardized information, guide the free flow of production factors between regions, and gradually eliminate the long-standing provincial market segmentation and administrative system barriers. Second, this paper also finds that there is city-scale heterogeneity and industry-level heterogeneity in the impact of productive service industry agglomeration on urban economic performance. Therefore, megacities and large cities should accelerate the establishment of high-tech industry incubation bases and science and technology service zones, and increase the diversified concentration scale of high-end production service industries such as finance, R&D and design, and science and technology services by combining the advantages of talents and technologies, to give full play to the positive external spillover effect of high-end production service industries and promote the economic performance of the city while spreading to the surrounding small and medium-sized cities to meet The demand for the high-end productive service industry in the town should be completed. Small and medium-sized cities should strengthen infrastructure construction, improve relevant supporting services, and focus on promoting the specialization and concentration of low-end productive service industries such as transportation, storage, and postal services, and concentrate advantageous elements to develop into specialized service centers. Finally, the constraints on the economic effects of specialized and diversified agglomeration by the level of opening up to the outside world also fully indicate that the aggregation of productive service industries should match the stage of economic development and industrial structure of cities, instead of blindly pursuing the development of piled-up productive service industries.

 

题目：Does labor mobility promote China’s industrial upgrading? Empirical evidence from prefecture-level cities in China

摘要：In this paper, the national census data in 2000 and 2010, 1% national population sample survey data in 2005and 2015 are used to match city-level economic and social indicators so as to investigate the impact of migrating labor on industrial upgrading at the municipality and prefecture-level. The research finds that the positive impact of migration on industrial upgrading is mainly embodied in three aspects. First, migrant labor has a significant impact on the transformation of industrial structure, and the increase in the proportion of urban migrant labor can accelerate to transforming economic structure from agricultural sector to non-agricultural industries. Second, migrant labor has a positive impact on the production efficiency of the industry. The migration can significantly promote the average production efficiency of the secondary and tertiary industries, as well as the proportion of high-tech industries in the tertiary industry at the same time. The migration has a positive impact on both the upgrading of industrial structure and the quality of the industry. Third, migration can significantly improve resource allocation efficiency in non-agricultural industries. The results of the inspection mechanism show that labor mobility can accelerate urban industrial upgrading under the local market effect and human capital accumulation mechanism. Labor mobility is a process of improving the resource allocation efficiency. Cities attract population and labor inflow with a more inclusive attitude, which has far-reaching significance for urban industrial structure transformation and upgrading.

关键词：migration; local market effect; human capital accumulation; resource allocation efficiency; industrial structure transformation; industrial upgrading

创新点：The existing literature mainly focuses on the effects of trade, physical capital factor inputs, industrial policies, demand and human capital accumulation, and innovation on industrial upgrading but lacks in-depth exploration of the impact of labor migration on industrial upgrading and the mechanism of action. In addition, the existing studies are limited by the availability of data, and few of them use national representative city data to study the impact of labor migration on regional industrial upgrading and structural transformation at the medium and macro levels. Therefore, the main contributions of this paper are: first, using representative national census data and 1% population sample survey micro labor force data to match the relevant economic and social data in the China Urban Statistical Yearbook, a set of Chinese urban migrant population and economic and social database is constructed to solve the problem of the inconsistent statistical caliber of population and labor force indicators in urban macro statistics. Second, the proportion of early migrant labor force and rail distance to the nearest transportation hub is introduced as instrumental variables to solve the endogeneity problem caused by the possible reverse causality between labor force mobility and industrial upgrading. Third, it further explores whether migrant labor contributes to urban industrial upgrading through local market effects and human capital accumulation mechanisms. During 2000-2015, China's working-age population continued to decline, aging accelerated, the contribution of the demographic dividend to the economy gradually weakened, and China's economic and industrial structures faced transformation and upgrading. Therefore, this study focuses on exploring the mechanisms and effects of migrating labor on industrial upgrading.

结论：This paper uses data from the 2000 and 2010 national population censuses and the 2005 and 2015 national 1% population sample surveys to match city-level economic and social indicators in the relevant years, and takes the prefecture-level cities' "municipal districts" as the scope of observation to construct a set of urban migrant population and economic and social indicators database. The study investigates the impact of migrant labor on urban industrial upgrading in the new era and its internal mechanism of action combined with theoretical analysis. The research shows that the migrant labor force has become an essential part of the urban labor market. The composition of the labor force in the urban labor market shows two characteristics: from the viewpoint of age structure, the migrant labor force is younger, and the inflow of migrant labor force has alleviated the aging trend of the urban labor force; from the viewpoint of education structure, the education level of the migrant labor force is comparable to that of the local population in the city, and even slightly higher in the later years. In terms of education structure, the education level of the migrant labor force is comparable to that of the local population in the city, or even slightly higher at the later stage. Thus, there is a significant positive impact of migrated labor on industrial upgrading, and migrated work can promote industrial upgrading. Firstly, migrated delivery has a significant positive effect on the transformation of the industrial structure. The increase of the proportion of migrated labor contributes to the transfer of industrial structure from primary industry to secondary industry and tertiary industry, indicating that migration promotes the upgrading of industrial structure. Second, migrated labor has a positive impact on the labor productivity of enterprises.

Migration not only has a significant effect on the labor productivity of the secondary and tertiary industries, and the impact on the tertiary industry is much more significant than that of the secondary industry; the increase in the share of migrated labor can significantly increase the share of high-skilled industries within the tertiary industry, which means that the effect of migration on industrial upgrading is not only reflected in promoting the transfer of industrial structure from the primary industry to the secondary and tertiary industries but also promoting This means that the effect of migration on industrial upgrading is not only to promote the transfer of industrial structure from primary to secondary and tertiary industries but also to improve the quality of industrial upgrading. Finally, migration can improve the economic allocation efficiency of secondary and tertiary industries and bring them closer to the optimal resource allocation path. This finding may reflect an essential shift in the employment structure of China's migrant population; that is, the employment of the migrant population in the urban labor market is no longer the traditional low-quality employment concentrated in low-end manufacturing and low-end service industries, but high-quality employment gradually moving to high-value-added sectors, which has a higher pulling effect on high-value-added industries than low-value-added industries in the economy, and can improve the productivity and resource allocation efficiency of enterprises. Thus, it has an important practical significance for economic structural transformation.

Migration promotes industrial upgrading through the local market effect and changes human capital accumulation in the region. For a city, under the condition that the relative cost of inter-regional trade remains unchanged, a city with relatively high human capital accumulation attracts the entry of labor force, which expands the urban consumer market and draws the entry of manufacturers producing high value-added products through the local market effect, while generating a crowding-out impact on low value-added industries, leading to industrial upgrading; labor mobility also changes the regional human capital allocation. High-skilled labor forms clusters and local sectors benefit from the human capital technology spillover effect, improving productivity and promoting industrial upgrading.

China is facing an aging population, low fertility rate, and tight urban labor supply in the current period of urban economic structural transformation. The flow of migrant labor, especially rural labor, not only increases the supply of urban labor market but also improves the productivity of industries, which leads to the transformation of industries to high value-added sectors, resulting in industrial upgrading and optimization, and provides new impetus for economic structural change and economic growth. Therefore, from the perspective of the long-term development of cities, city managers should take measures to remove institutional barriers to labor mobility as soon as possible, create conditions to promote the citizenship process of the mobile population, and further increase investment to improve the level of human capital in cities to facilitate the transformation of the economy and industries to high-quality development.

题目：Theoretical mechanism and empirical evidence of China’s high-speed railway construction and the agglomeration of productive service industry

摘要：Under the theoretical framework of new economic geography, this paper re-explores the impact of high-speed railway construction on the agglomeration of productive service industry and its internal mechanism from the perspective of agglomeration rent. Firstly, this paper regards the opening of China’s high-speed railway as a quasi-natural experiment, using the data of 285 prefecture level cities in 2007—2016 for empirical test. The results show that the opening of high-speed railway actively promotes the agglomeration of productive service industry. This conclusion is still true after the potential endogeneity is eliminated with the help of constructing minimum spanning tree. Secondly, traffic accessibility, market access and market integration are introduced as alternative variables of agglomeration rent. The results show that the opening of high-speed railway directly improves the urban traffic convenience, then improves the market access, promotes the development of regional integration, and finally increases the agglomeration rent to varying degrees, and promotes the agglomeration of productive service industry in cities along the high-speed railway. Finally, the opening of high-speed railway has a great boosting effect on the agglomeration of high-end productive service industry, but for the megacities and coastal cities that have already been equipped with the perfect transportation infrastructure, the agglomeration effect brought by the traffic accessibility is general. In addition, when the distance between the high-speed railway station and the city center is more than30 kilometers, the positive impact of high-speed railway on the agglomeration of productive service industry disappears.

关键词：high-speed railway; agglomeration rent; productive service industry agglomeration; difference-in-difference model; minimum spanning tree

创新点：In summary, combined with the basic fact that the large-scale investment, construction, and operation of high-speed railroads in China at this stage have greatly improved the domestic transportation network, this paper considers the opening of high-speed railways as an essential event and treats it as a quasi-natural experiment to investigate the effect of the opening of high-speed railways on the aggregation of productive service industries. This paper further examines the nonlinear relationship between agglomeration rent and effective service industry aggregation based on the perspective of agglomeration rent. It expands the analysis on the heterogeneity of industry, region, and HSR site selection. Compared with existing studies, the possible marginal contributions of this study are mainly three: first, this paper explores the mechanism of the impact of high-speed railway construction on productive service industry agglomeration in the framework of new economic geography, with a view to re-explaining the phenomenon of industrial agglomeration and transfer in China at the present stage; second, drawing on the logic of the instrumental variables chosen by Faber [3] in his study of the impact of highways on industrial agglomeration, this paper constructs for high-speed railway Third, introducing the perspective of agglomeration rent, this paper uses the indicators of accessibility, market access and market integration as proxy variables for agglomeration rent, and uses the threshold model to examine Third, the report introduces the perspective of agglomeration rent, and uses the threshold model to investigate the nonlinear characteristics between the change of agglomeration rent and the agglomeration of productive service industry caused by the construction of high-speed rail.

结论：In the context of economic transformation and industrial upgrading, China's economic growth is bound to pay more attention to the quality and efficiency of economic growth, and the aggregation of productive service industries is considered to be a vital driving force to fuel economic growth. Promoting the aggregation of productive service industry to promote and support the high-quality growth of China's economy is a significant practical issue related to cultivating new growth points and new dynamic energy of China's economy, transforming the development model, and optimizing the economic structure in the new era. The rapid development of high-speed railway dramatically reduces the cost of knowledge and information dissemination, promotes the flow of factors, and dramatically affects the agglomeration rent of productive service industry; therefore, it is of great theoretical value and practical significance to investigate the impact of high-speed railway construction on the aggregation of the influential service industry. Therefore, this study regards China's high-speed railway as a quasi-natural experiment and explores the effects of high-speed railway construction on the aggregation of productive service industries and the inner mechanism.

The main findings of this paper are: first, the opening of HSR can positively promote the aggregation of productive service industries, and the results of four robustness tests, namely, the replacement of productive service industry agglomeration measure, the placebo test using the "planned HSR indicator," the alternative productivity measure, and the independent sample test, show that the benchmark results are robust. The results of the four robustness tests show that the benchmark results are robust. Second, this paper draws on Faber construct a minimum spanning tree as an instrumental variable to deal with the endogeneity problem and identify the causal relationship between the impact of HSR construction on productive service agglomeration. The regression results are not substantially different from the benchmark results, which excludes the potential endogeneity problem. Third, introducing transportation accessibility, market access, and market integration indicators as proxy variables for agglomeration rents, the results find a gradual and deepening process of the impact of HSR opening on productive service industry agglomeration. Specifically, the opening of high-speed rail directly improves the accessibility of cities, then enhances market access and promotes regional integration, which eventually increases the agglomeration rent to different degrees and promotes the aggregation of productive service industries. Fourth, the results of the heterogeneity analysis in this paper show that the opening of high-speed rail has an average effect on the low-end effective service industry agglomeration but has a tremendous boosting impact on the high-end effective service industry agglomeration with high technology and high knowledge attributes. For small and medium-sized cities and inland cities, the increased accessibility, market access, and market integration caused by HSR significantly contribute to the aggregation of productive service industries. Still, for megacities and coastal cities, which already have nearly complete transportation infrastructure, the accessibility effect is not significant. Finally, the siting test of HSR shows that the positive impact of HSR on productive service agglomeration disappears when the distance between the HSR station and the city center exceeds 30 km, i.e., when the HSR station is in the suburban area.