Place-based industrial policy and firm-level skill upgrading: evidence from China's demonstration bases for new industrialization

Tao Zhang, Ridong Hu and Xiaoyu Li

International Journal of Manpower, 2026, 1-17

Abstract: PurposeIndustrial policy can influence not only how much firms produce but also the types of workers they employ. This study examines whether China’s National Demonstration Bases for New Industrialization reshape manufacturing firms’ educational and occupational composition.Design/methodology/approachWe compile approval records from over 500 official documents and match them to A-share listed manufacturing firms at the county level for 2005–2023. Staggered difference-in-differences models, supplemented by double machine learning and robustness checks, estimate changes in two dimensions of workforce composition.FindingsThe policy increases the share of employees with a master’s degree or above and the technical-to-nontechnical personnel ratio. Effects vary across industrial and institutional settings, with clearer evidence for occupational composition than educational attainment in several specifications. Further analysis associates policy implementation with increased customer and industry concentration, while evidence for supplier concentration is inconclusive.Originality/valueThe study connects research on technological change and skill demand with the institutional setting of place-based industrial policy. By distinguishing educational from occupational composition, it identifies workforce adjustments that aggregate employment and firm performance measures may overlook. The concentration results also motivate further research on supply-chain relationships, market structure, and skilled labor allocation.

Keywords: Place-based industrial policy; Skill upgrading; Manufacturing employment; Staggered DID; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/ijm/article/doi/10.1108/IJ ... and-firm-level-skill (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/ijm/article-pdf/doi/10.110 ... m-06-2026-0698en.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ijmpps:ijm-06-2026-0698

DOI: 10.1108/IJM-06-2026-0698

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Manpower is currently edited by Professor Adrian Ziderman

More articles in International Journal of Manpower from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().