Effects of Institutions on Spatial Patterns of Manufacturing Industries and Policy Implications in Metropolitan Areas: A Case Study of Wuhan, China

Min Zhou,Man Yuan,Kaixuan Lin,Yaping Huang

doi:10.3390/land10070710

Abstract

Manufacturing space is a spatial system that combines the interaction between capital and institutions at the enterprise, industry, and spatial levels. It is also an important functional type that promotes the spatial evolution of big cities. Most studies focus on the effects of a single institutional type on the manufacturing space of big cities and lack systematic and complete exploration of the institutional mechanism. Current empirical research on typical industrial cities in China is insufficient. This study uses a GIS spatial analysis technique and a Poisson regression model to analyze the mechanism by which institutions have influenced the spatial patterns of manufacturing industries in the Wuhan metropolitan area since the 1990s. The results show that land policy, development zone policy, urban planning, transportation strategy, and eco-environmental policy all have a significant impact on the restructuring process and distribution pattern of the manufacturing industries through incentives and constraints. This study expands our understanding of the influence mechanism of manufacturing spatial patterns and proposes spatial guiding strategies and policy implications for the spatial transformation of urban manufacturing.

Highlights

Since the 1990s, countries such as China have rapidly emerged as global manufacturing factories by relying on the cost advantage of land and labor as well as institutional dividends [1,2,3,4]
This study proposes the hypothesis that institutions have been the most important factors affecting the spatial patterns of the manufacturing industry in China’s big cities since the 1990s
We explore the effects of institutional factors on the spatial patterns of manufacturing industries in the Wuhan metropolitan area

Summary

Introduction

Since the 1990s, countries such as China have rapidly emerged as global manufacturing factories by relying on the cost advantage of land and labor as well as institutional dividends [1,2,3,4]. These include land reform, reform of public-owned enterprises, tax reform, and development zone policies. After experiencing adjustments to land development and spatial structures, China’s big cities have started actively participating in the global production network. This has allowed China to become the main location for global manufacturing [5,6,7,8,9,10,11]

Methods

Results

Conclusion