Evolution of the Chinese industrial structure: A social network perspective

Abstract

From a social network perspective, an industrial system can be regarded as an industrial network formed by industries as nodes and associations as edges. Based on this, this research constructed an industrial network model that converts the purely numerical coefficient measurement of industrial structure evolution into a structural feature comparison on an industrial network graph. Based on China's input–output data from 2007, 2012, and 2017, this research constructed an industrial network, analyzed the overall structure and individual characteristics of the industrial network, and further explored the economic meaning of each network indicator. The indicators of the overall scale of the Chinese industrial network showed a continuous growth trend, indicating that the association structure between industries has increased in complexity. For all kinds of industries, manufacturing industries and a few service industries significantly influence the overall industrial network. The supporting role of capital-intensive industries has become increasingly prominent. Gradually, the industrial grouping pattern tended to be balanced, and the self-organization within the subgroups continued to increase. Compared to the research paradigm of an industrial structure based on an input–output model, research on industrial structures based on an industrial network model can explore the information of industrial network structures by analyzing the differences in the positions and roles of specific industries in the industrial network and adding a new influencing factor to explain the differences in the development of various industries. This research shows that the industrial network can provide important technical support for transforming and upgrading the industrial economy as well as promote the healthy and sustainable development of the national economy.