High-technology employment growth in China: geographic disparities in economic structure and sectoral performance

Qiang Li (), Jason F. Kovacs () and Geun Hee Choi ()
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Qiang Li: University of Seoul
Jason F. Kovacs: University of Seoul
Geun Hee Choi: University of Seoul

Economic Change and Restructuring, 2021, vol. 54, issue 4, No 5, 1025-1064

Abstract: Abstract This paper examines the geography of high-technology industry growth in China through the shift-share analysis of relevant employment data from 2004 to 2014. To overcome the shortcomings identified in previous shift-share-based research, a new modified analytical technique was employed. The results unexpectedly show that China’s four metropolitan areas with special administrative status (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing) no longer play a leading role in driving high-tech employment growth. Moreover, the more sparsely populated regions of Xinjiang, Tibet, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and Hainan show the most favorable high-tech employment growth. Despite possessing an incomplete array of major industrial sectors, these provincial areas and autonomous regions are specializing in fast-growing industrial sectors, consequently yielding more significant high-tech employment growth. Thus, according to our results, specialization favors high-tech employment growth. Among other findings that diverge with earlier research on China and with contemporary assumptions about the metropolitan location of most high-tech growth, our research identifies a number of regional growth corridors tied to specific high-tech sectors as well as an inverse geographic trend in which high-tech employment growth decreases from the far less urbanized western regions to the more urbanized east. This paper concludes with several policy recommendations and suggested areas for future research.

Keywords: High-tech employment; Economic structure; Sectoral performance; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/s10644-020-09293-6

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