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EFFECTS OF EMERGENCY INDUSTRY SPATIAL AGGLOMERATION ON REGIONAL INNOVATION PERFORMANCES AND EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURES: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA⁸
Yuliang Liu, Canhua Kang, Zhaolin Duan, Yanlin Sun

ABSTRACT. The development of emergency industries has received attention in recent years. However, the question of what unique influence they have on regional innovation and employment has not been answered by existing studies. To fill this research gap, using the panel data of 29 provincial regions in China from 2005 to 2018 the influencing mechanism of emergency industry spatial agglomeration on regional innovation performances and employment structure was explored through spatial autoregression (SAR) analysis and spatial Dubin (SDM) analysis. Results show that: Emergency industry spatial agglomeration can facilitate regional innovation performances effectively. The fixed asset input can increase regional innovation performances effectively. Emergency industry spatial agglomeration is beneficial for regional employment structural updating. Expanding the fixed asset input and emergency industry can not only provide labour supply but also increase labour demands as responses to the agglomeration effect. With further considerations of heterogeneity in East China, Central China, and West China, the degree of emergency industrial agglomeration exerts more evident effects in East China. The fixed asset input in East China can promote regional employment structural updating more significantly. However, the influencing coefficients of spatial cost, information transmission, market demands, and government behaviours in Central China and West China are far lower than those in East China. Conclusions provide theoretical reference and decision-making basis for further optimising the spatial agglomeration of emergency industries.

KEYWORDS:  emergency industry, spatial agglomeration, innovation performance, employment structure.

JEL classification:  J20, O11, O31.

⁸Acknowledgment:  This study was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Humanities and Social Science Fund Project of the Ministry of Education (No 19YJA790076).