From World Factory to Global City-Region: The Dynamics of Manufacturing in the Pearl River Delta and Its Spatial Pattern in the 21st Century

Abstract

Since the 21st century, the PRD has gradually been transforming from a world factory to a global city-region. Based on the manufacturing and urban economic data, this paper uses the upgrade (UPG) index of industrial structure, comparative advantage and economies of scale to evaluate the development level of manufacturing in the PRD from 2000 to 2019. Through geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR), this paper measures the impact of four types of components (R & D, service economy, production capability and foreign investment) on the development of manufacturing in different periods. The results show the disharmony between the scale, structure and quality of the manufacturing in different cities. The impact on the manufacturing from R & D has spatiotemporal differences; the impact of foreign investment on the west coast cities of PRD is stronger than that of the east coast cities with varied impact mechanisms. The impact of the service economy is strong in sub-core cities. The impact of production capability has a transmission effect from core cities to the sub-core cities, indicating the manufacturing subdivision of function within the region. By 2019, The PRD has gradually transformed into a dual-core structure and the two cores have differentiated development paths.