Labor Agglomeration Research Articles

Industry’s going upstairs: The innovative usage of industrial land and evaluation of its economic effects

The concept of ‘Industry’s Going Upstairs (IGU)’ represents an innovative usage of industrial land that transfers the enterprises’ production to high-rise industrial buildings. It is emerging in the developed areas of eastern China. This study discusses IGU policies to promote local economic development and conducts an empirical test using Guangdong city-level data and a difference-in-differences model. Theoretical analysis shows that IGU can broaden the development space of enterprises and realise industrial and labour agglomeration under supporting policies provided by local governments. The empirical results demonstrate that IGU can improve land-use efficiency and promote local industrial development. IGU is a feasible approach for addressing the current shortage of industrial land in China and is worthy of promotion and replication in other regions.

A Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Evaluation Model for the Coordination of Industrial Agglomeration and Regional Economic Growth

The coordinated development between industrial agglomeration and regional economic growth is of great significance. Based on the theory, this article constructs a fuzzy multi-criteria evaluation model for the coordination of industrial agglomeration and regional economic growth. The model reveals the impact of industrial agglomeration on economic growth by establishing a regression model. The output value of the secondary industry and the tertiary industry are classified, and the initial value method is used for dimensionless processing. The experimental results show that using the panel unit root test, panel cointegration test, panel regression analysis, and gray correlation analysis to conduct empirical analysis and research, the capital agglomeration and labor agglomeration in regional industries both promote economic growth, and the correlation degree of sustainable agglomeration components reached 89.7%, which significantly and indirectly played a role in promoting the coordinated development of economic growth in regional economic growth.

Research on the Impact of Industrial Robots on China’s Regional In-dustrial Structure

<div><p class="4">The large-scale deployment of industrial robots and the technological innovation brought by artificial intelligence promote the development of local high industrialization and modernization. Industrial robots are going through the process of changing from automatic tools to intelligent tools, and even to innovative tools. Theoretical analysis shows that its universal characteristics and technological progress effect contribute to the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure. The panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model is constructed based on the data of the international robotics Union. The results show that the following facts. (1). The impact of industrial robots on the upgrading of China’s regional industrial structure has a single threshold effect, which can be roughly divided into an impact area bounded by Hu Huanyong line and high in the east and low in the west. (2). With the increasing impact, the positive effect of material capital agglomeration on the upgrading of regional industrial structure is restrained, and the negative effect of industrial labor agglomeration on the upgrading of regional industrial structure should be enhanced. (3). Affected by the impact, the elasticity of material capital agglomeration and industrial labor agglomeration increases marginally in the west of Hu Huanyong line, decreases marginally in the east of Hu Huanyong line, and finally converges. (4). Industrial robots have no significant impact on the industrial structure in the process of attracting human capital agglomeration, technological factor agglomeration and guiding the change of consumption structure.</p></div>

The Relationship Between Rail Transit and Industrial Agglomeration: Mediating Effect of Labor Agglomeration

The urban transit system is considered the backbone of any society as it heavily depends on economic progress. The railway transit system is crucial for any urban transit system. Based on this notion, the present research explores the industrial agglomeration in China’s prefecture-level and cities from 2010 to 2020. The research analyses the processes of urban rail transit building, industrial agglomeration, and labor agglomeration due to the railway’s transit network development. The findings are summarized in three main points; first, the agglomeration of the labor force is positively affected by the construction of urban rail transit infrastructure. Secondly, the development of railways infrastructure stimulates the agglomeration of manufacturing industries in and near urban population centers leading to the development of services industries. Third, the development and integration of railways networks with other transportation networks also optimize the allocation of capital in these areas as well. In the present research Preacher and Hayes, Behavior research methods, 2008, 40 (3), 879–891 methodology has been applied to determine the relationship between the development of railways transit system and concentration of industries, by taking into account the mediating effects of labor agglomeration. The development of railways network tends to bring economic and industrial development to these regions resulting in overall social development.

Labor agglomeration and urban air pollution: research on labor force based on skill heterogeneity in China.

Labor agglomeration with heterogeneous skills has different effects on urban air pollution. Based on the panel data of 263 prefecture level cities in China from 2006 to 2019, this paper constructs a Spatial Durbin Model to explore the impact of skill heterogeneous labor agglomeration and the interaction between skill heterogeneous labor agglomeration on urban air pollution. The results show that there is a positive U-shaped relationship between high-skilled labor agglomeration, low-skilled labor agglomeration, and urban air pollution. From the perspective of restraining urban air pollution, high-skilled labor agglomeration is stronger than low-skilled labor agglomeration. Under the influence of high skilled labor agglomeration, the inhibitory effect of low-skilled labor agglomeration on urban air pollution is enhanced. High-skilled labor agglomeration and low-skilled labor agglomeration reduce the degree of urban air pollution by promoting the improvement of urban innovation level. Based on this, this paper puts forward some policy suggestions, such as further promoting urban labor agglomeration, formulating reasonable urban population management policies, strengthening labor exchange and learning, and carrying out labor knowledge and skills training.

The Spillover Effect of Labor Agglomeration on Regional Economic Growth

Under the background that China's labor force is decreasing and they can move freely, this paper selects the Spatial Doberman model with time-individual fixed effects to analyze and study the spatial spillover effect and its impact mechanism of the labor agglomeration of 31 provinces in mainland China from 2003 to 2018 on regional economic growth. It was found that in China, the increase in the concentration of labor in a region and surrounding areas can promote economic growth in the region through the increase in marketization and the decline in the dependency ratio. However, the current regional economic growth in China is manifested by the promotion of labor agglomeration in the region and the suppression of labor agglomeration in the surrounding areas.

Research on Labor Market Institutional Environment and Labor Agglomeration-Analysis Based on Dynamic Spatial Panel Data.

The institutional environment not only has a great impact on economic development but also has a certain impact on labor agglomeration. This paper explains the phenomenon of labor agglomeration from the perspective of the labor market institutional environment. Taking the labor market institutional environment including social contract environment and labor contract environment as the premise, it is considered that a good labor institutional market can promote labor agglomeration and technological progress can stimulate the agglomeration of highly-skilled talents through theoretical analysis. Based on the provincial panel data from 2001 to 2017, the empirical analysis is conducted to verify the relevant factors through the dynamic spatial Durbin model. The paper finally puts forward some policy suggestions to maintain a good institutional environment of the labor market, including that the local government should continue to improve the labor dispute settlement system, strengthen the protection of labor rights and interests, and enhance the institutional environment of the regional labor market.

Rank-size distribution of urban employment in labour market areas

This paper examines the rank-size distribution of employment in cities considering the designation of unified labour market areas (LMAs). The empirical application refers to Greece and the dataset includes population and employment at the municipal and local commune levels as well as LMAs originating from commuting patterns between communes. It is found that the employment rank-size distribution based on municipalities substantially overestimates the size of smaller peripheral town areas, where labour agglomerations typically take place at finer spatial scales, and underestimates agglomerations around larger urban areas. The use of LMAs as an alternative spatial unit of analysis entails a less even geographical distribution of workers, particularly when adopting a 10% commuting threshold. Moreover, a threshold regression is used to facilitate the distinction between urban and rural areas, specifying the LMA size beyond which substantial urbanisation effects arise and signifying that about 80% of the total employment corresponds to urban employment. The findings can have important implications for the formulation and evaluation of policies to manage labour agglomeration economies in metropolitan and peripheral urban and rural areas for the sustainable and equitable growth of a country.

Industrial Location Decisions of Biotechnology Organizations

Biotechnology will have a tremendous effect on future worldwide economic development and competitiveness. This article describes research on biotechnology location decisions and economic development and characteristics of American biotechnology companies and employment. This background provides a foundation for discussing empirical evidence from commercial biotechnology enterprises in the Greater Seattle region, a major American biotechnology concentration. Research findings indicate the importance of university research activities, academic spinoffs, and entrepreneurial behavior in biotechnology firm development. Research and development (R&D) and manufacturing facility location decisions emphasized founder preferences, proximity to either university or company facilities, labor agglomeration economies, and the local infrastructure. Federal and state regulations and taxes, marketing capabilities, and financing sources were leading operational restrictions affecting company growth. These findings suggest increasing university and company R&D funding and expanding existing high-technology complexes to encourage regional biotechnology economic development.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE LOCATION OF INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURE IN THE UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT Instrument manufacture is one of the high-technology industries which has become increasingly conspicuous in the mid-twentieth century. It is an industry which, in a locational sense, is little influenced by transportation costs, i. e., it is footloose, and is probably best understood in terms of the concept of agglomeration economies. Within the framework of agglomeration economies two hypotheses were advanced. The first proposed that instrument manufacture would be closely associated with the more sophisticated later-stage industries with which it has input-output dependencies. The second hypothesis, essentially, a labor agglomeration hypothesis, suggested that instrument manufacture would be highly associated with the distribution of scientists and engineers. Two scales were used in testing the hypotheses, the states of the United States, and the seventy-three SMSA's for which detailed manufacturing data were available. The linkage hypothesis was tested by means of both simple and multiple cor...