TY - JOUR
T1 - Will rural urbanization produce a new producer service space in China?
AU - Yeh, Anthony G.O.
AU - Yang, Fiona F.
AU - Xu, Zhihua
N1 - The research was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 41301181), the General Research Fund of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Grant no. 17209014), the Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Grant no. 7001SPPR-09), Francis S.K. Lau Research Fund in Urban Studies and Urban Planning, Distinguished Research Achievement Award, and Chan To-Haan Endowed Professorship Fund of the University of Hong Kong.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/9
Y1 - 2017/9
N2 - The spatial relationship between manufacturing and producer services is being significantly weakened in advanced economies because of the decline of manufacturing industries. However, as upstream–downstream industries, manufacturing and producer services have incentives to locate in proximity to each other. In developing countries, such as China, where manufacturing is still an important component of the economy, the evolution of the manufacturing–services relationship and its link to the distribution of producer services have remained unclear. After the economic reforms in 1978, China has experienced a distinctive process of rural industrialization and town development. Will a new producer service space, which is different from that of developed and other developing countries, be produced in China given its development of rural industries? We examine this question by using Guangdong Province, one of China's manufacturing bases and representative regions of rural industrialization, as a case study. Our findings suggest that despite their close input–output linkage, manufacturing and producer services are less likely to co-locate. The development of rural industries has not reduced the importance of large cities and city centers in producer service development. The accelerated economic globalization, the rapid growth of the service sector, and the low-end nature of rural industries have made the manufacturing–services linkage less crucial in determining the location of producer services.
AB - The spatial relationship between manufacturing and producer services is being significantly weakened in advanced economies because of the decline of manufacturing industries. However, as upstream–downstream industries, manufacturing and producer services have incentives to locate in proximity to each other. In developing countries, such as China, where manufacturing is still an important component of the economy, the evolution of the manufacturing–services relationship and its link to the distribution of producer services have remained unclear. After the economic reforms in 1978, China has experienced a distinctive process of rural industrialization and town development. Will a new producer service space, which is different from that of developed and other developing countries, be produced in China given its development of rural industries? We examine this question by using Guangdong Province, one of China's manufacturing bases and representative regions of rural industrialization, as a case study. Our findings suggest that despite their close input–output linkage, manufacturing and producer services are less likely to co-locate. The development of rural industries has not reduced the importance of large cities and city centers in producer service development. The accelerated economic globalization, the rapid growth of the service sector, and the low-end nature of rural industries have made the manufacturing–services linkage less crucial in determining the location of producer services.
KW - Agglomeration economies
KW - China
KW - Co-location
KW - Input–output relationship
KW - Producer services
KW - Rural industrialization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85024861434&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019739751630683X?via%3Dihub
U2 - 10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.07.004
DO - 10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.07.004
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85024861434
SN - 0197-3975
VL - 67
SP - 105
EP - 117
JO - Habitat International
JF - Habitat International
ER -