Regional Division Of Labor: Theory, Measurement And Empirical Research

Regional specialization is one of the core questions in regional economics and has been paid a lot of attention in academy. Regional Specialization theory comes from location theory and specialization and trade theory. And regional specialization index also develops to a certain extent. Based on these theories and with the improvement of the data accessibility, many positive studies on regional specialization come out. While affirming the great achievements on regional specialization, we also realize there are two questions need to study. First, from the angle of positive research, regional specialization may be studied from two paths, that is, regional path and industrial path. To a country, regional specialization level from the two paths should be same. Secondly, to the positive study of regional specialization in being, there is a common suppose of closed economy by regional path or a common suppose of isolated system by industrial path. And these supposes fall short of economy reality.The purpose of this paper is to hackle the theory and to do some empirical research on the two questions. The paper includes six chapters and may be divided into three parts, that is introduction (the first chapter), theory analysis (the second and third chapters), and positive study (the fourth, fifth and sixth chapters). The first chapter is introduction. First, we set forth the theoretical and practical significance of the selection of the paper. Then we summarize the literatures, especially the meaning of regional specialization from the view of demonstration.Afterwards, we introduce the analytical framework and the main viewpoint of the paper. Finally, we conclude the innovations and points to be studied in the future. The second chapter is to card regional specialization theory, mainly the location theory, international specialization and international trade theory. For location theory, we mainly introduce Thune's agricultural location theory, Weber's industrial location theory and Christaller's central place theory. For specialization and trade theory, we mainly introduce the absolute advantage theory, the relative advantage theory, the factor endowment theory, Krugman model as well as the Brander-Krugman model in new trade theory. This chapter establishes theoretical basis for following chapters.The third chapter tries to develop the measurement indexes of regional specialization. A series of conceptions (the measurement indexes) can be traced to the same origin, including specialization intensity, specialization position, region's specialization coefficient, localization intensity, localization power, industry's localization coefficient, regional specialization coefficient, etc. Thus the chapter constructs a concept framework to analyze and discuss regional specialization.Furthermore, the chapter also advances the concept framework from closed economy to open economy in regional path and from isolated system to open system in industrial path. To sum up, the chapter tries to solve the two questions mentioned in the foregoing article and provides the methodology basis for the empirical research in the paper.The fourth chapter discussed the industrial specialization of province level in China. We use the measurement indexes constructed in the third chapter to discuss the industrial regional specialization in China on a long time span. We find that the regional specialization level in China's industry has improved a lot since mid-1980. The chapter also discusses the disintegration of the industry regional specialization of China. We find that there exists great disparity among provinces as to the contribution degree. And the leading regions (industries) in contribution degrees are owing to the change of relative regional (industrial) scale. We also analyze the influencing factors of regional specialization of China's industry, and find that history factor, foreign industry and scale economy all do forward function on regional specialization, while relative scale of industry do negative function on regional specialization.The fifth chapter starts from the regional path to discuss the industrial specialization in the Yangtze Delta Area. We both advance the empirical research from closed economy and form open economy in regional path and provide some necessary comparative analysis. We find that the regional specialization level in the Yangtze Delta Area has improved to some degree since mid-late 1990s both from closed economy and from open economy suppose. And the regional specialization level in the Yangtze Delta area is higher under open economy suppose than closed economy suppose.The sixth chapter starts from industrial path to discuss the industrial specialization in the Yangtze Delta Area. In this chapter, we discuss the industrial specialization in the Yangtze Delta Area both from isolated system and from open system suppose, and provide some necessary comparative analysis. We find that the industrial specialization level in Yangtze Delta Area has improved to some degree since mid-late 1990s both from isolated system and from open system suppose. And we also find that the industrial specialization level in the Yangtze Delta Area is higher under open system suppose than isolated system suppose.