Urban economic resilience and human capital: An exploration of heterogeneity and mechanism in the context of spatial population mobility

Abstract

Human capital is a critical factor that affects urban economic resilience (UER). We utilize Baidu migration big data to construct a population mobility matrix and provide an analysis of the mechanism of UER from four different perspectives: innovation, industrial structure advancement, industrial structure rationalization, and economic development. Our findings suggest that human capital contributes to approximately 7 % improvement in UER through innovation and economic development, while the role of industrial structure advancement and rationalization is not significant. To address potential endogeneity, we employ an instrumental variable (IV) using spatial two-stage least squares. Additionally, we conduct a heterogeneity analysis based on the city tier, human capital level, and UER size. We replenish the study on UER and offer feasible solutions from the perspective of human capital to enhance UER.