The role of skilled labor pool in driving firms to agglomerate: an empirical study on China's policy experiment

This study aims to empirically identify agglomeration forces operating through skilled labor mobility. Specifically, this research uses a natural experiment in China regarding to skilled labor migration liberalization to examine the impact of skilled labor pool and knowledge availability on China’s industrial agglomeration. The current project centers on three progressive chapters on how skilled labor reallocation reshapes the economic geography in China. Chapter 2 estimates the response of the high-tech industrial agglomeration to high-educated/high-skilled labor migration liberalization. It finds liberalizing interregional skilled labor mobility facilitates high-tech industrial agglomeration. Chapter 3 uses a narrowly controlled dataset to construct a case study on the China’s Food Processing industry. The research question posed is whether Food Processing firms co-locate to access talent pool. It finds evidence that the skilled labor pool affected the location decision of Food Processing firms. The result supports recent literature that the food and agribusiness sector is increasingly dependent on knowledge and high technology. Chapter 4 models and tests the knowledge effect through which a skilled labor policy increases industrial agglomeration. It analyzes relationship between a sector’s heterogeneity level and knowledge efficacy. It finds that heterogeneity alone does not maximize knowledge efficacy.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural & Consumer Economics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Wang, Miao

Contributors dc:contributor

• Goldsmith, Peter D.
• Baylis, Kathy
• Hewings, Geoffrey J.D.
• Kirwan, Barret E.

• Agglomeration
• Natural experiment

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2015 Miao Wang

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/89109

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/89109