| The outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008 had a traumatic impact on the world economy. Despite China's sustaining and rapid economic growth, the internal conflicts of economic structure, which can be temporarily covered up by the rapid economic growth, have become increasingly apparent, and the issues of industrial restructuring and upgrading have recently become the focal point among professional economists.What is the reasonable proportion of three industries (primary, secondary, and tertiary industries) that a country should maintain? What are required conditions for the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure? Are there any common laws that we can learn from the processes of industrial restructuring and upgrading in other nations? This thesis selected the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Japan, Korea, and India as six typical countries, conducted theoretical and empirical analyses on the above issues from the international comparative perspective, and proposed the conditions, directions, and pathways of the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure in China.Chapter 1 of the thesis clarifies several basic concepts including export-oriented economy, open economy, economic transformation, restructuring and upgrading of industrial structure, reviewed the literature relevant to industrial restructuring and upgrading, and clarified the objective, the design, and the overall framework of the study. Chapter 2 is a theoretical analysis of the issues in industrial restructuring and upgrading from five theoretical perspectives including those of international division of labor, economic growth, economic development, institutional economics, and sustainable development. Chapters 3 and 4 summarize a historical analysis and an empirical analysis. Chapter 3 reviews the historical courses of industrialization and industrial structure transformation and upgrading as well as the pathways of development in four developed countries (i.e., the UK, USA, Germany, and Japan) and two developing countries (i.e., India, South Korea), along with a summary of national characteristics of industrial transformation, using an historical and inductive qualitative analysis. Chapter four is an empirical analysis of the laws of industrial transformation in six selected countries.For developing countries, in the current situation of international division of labor, upgrading of the industrial structure is a foremost and difficult issue. Chapter 5 starts with an analysis of the conditions of industrial restructuring and upgrading, and uses the structuralist theory to further discuss case examples of industrial restructuring and upgrading. Chapter 6 proposes directions and pathways of transformation and upgrading of industrial structure in China, and further discusses the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure, using the theory of sustainable development.Industrial restructuring and upgrading, as a key issue in economic growth and development, has always been the hotspot of economics research. The large amount of literature typically focuses on a certain aspect of industrial restructuring and upgrading, without a comprehensive theoretical clarification of the issues. This thesis starts with a theoretical analysis of the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure from give economic theories including the international division of labor theory, the theory of economic growth, the economic development theory, the institutional economic theory, and the theory of sustainable development. Despite the lack of empirical research in the theories of institutional economics and sustainable development, new directions of research are proposed for future investigation.The classic formulation of the theory of industrial restructuring and upgrading was originated from international comparison of industrial development. However, with acceleration of economic globalization, with deepening of international division of labor, and with the expansion of research dimensions of economic theory in recent years, the international comparative research of industrial transformation is either sporadic or focused on pair-wise comparison (such as China vs. India, China vs. the United States). This thesis has selected six countries, including UK, US, Germany, Japan, India, and South Korea, analyzed the characteristics of industrial transformation and upgrading based on a historical review of industrial development in these nations, and summarized the common laws of industrial transformation and upgrading in developed and developing countries. The comparative perspective is also the one of the innovation of this study.From the perspective of international division of labor, conducting innovative logic positivistic research on industrial transformation of selected typical nations, particularly focusing on analysis of the relationship of the degree of international division of labor and industrial transformation, the linkage of economic growth and industrial restructuring, changes in the foreign trade commodity structure and changes in industrial structure, and the relationship between technological innovation and industrial restructuring;The study employs an innovative approach by using the logic positivistic research method to investigate principles of industrial restructuring and upgrading based on the data of the aforementioned six countries with regard to development of international trade, economic growth, and changes of industrial structure. Three aspects of analyses are conducted:(1) vertical and horizontal comparisons of the relationship between national participation in the international division of labor and industrial restructuring; (2) the linkage of economic growth in these six countries to their industrial restructuring, and the linkage of changes in the structure of international trading commodity to changes in industrial structure; and (3) the relationship between technological innovation and industrial restructuring and upgrading in the context of participation in international division of labor, primarily based on the case example of South Korea.Among these six countries, Germany, Japan and South Korea can be viewed as typical models of the catching-up economic development in Europe and Asia. This thesis also includes an analysis of China regarding the external conditions, the fundamental condition, the system conditions, and the critical elements of China's industrial restructuring and upgrading. Based on the neostructuralist school of thoughts, using case empirical methods, the study reveals the unique features of industrial restructuring and upgrading in Germany, Japan and Korea, particularly in the aspects of system competitiveness, internal development, and government intervention, which provides a broader theoretical perspective necessary for understanding China's industrial restructuring and upgrading, so as to clarify the direction and paths of the Chinese industrial restructuring and upgrading in the context of economic globalization and natural environment constraints.The following are the main conclusions of the thesis:1. The openness of the economy is conducive to a country's industrial transformation and upgrading, which is a common law of development with regard to industrial transformation and upgrading in all countries under the condition of globalized market economy. The more a country participates in the international division of labor, the more advantages a country may have if its dominant industries embrace industrial transformation and upgrading. The empirical analysis of developed and developing countries, as included in this thesis, further confirms this principle. Developing countries must seize the opportunity of international industrial transfer, make full use of their own advantages and critical resources, and promote the country's industrial transformation and upgrading.2. The relationships between economic growth and industrial restructuring vary depending on country and specific sectors of industry. The complexity makes it hard to conclude that economic growth will definitely lead to industrial restructuring; nor will industrial restructuring bring about high-speed economic growth. Compared with industrial structure, at least in the temporal order, the economic growth in various countries showed more instability. China's future development will depend on whether it can successfully transit from the pursuit of rapid economic growth to thd pursuit of industrial transformation and upgrading, which requires a deeper and wider perspective and understanding of the connotation of development and the significance of industrial transformation and upgrading.3. Government intervention and promotion is essential for industrial restructuring and upgrading in the catching-up economic development, but the premise is the comprehensive market system. Integrating the neostructuralist approach and the successful experience of industrial restructuring and upgrading in Germany, Japan and South Korea, we have learned that for China, in its middle-to-late phase of industrialization, it is important to replace the relatively narrow theory of competitive advantage with the concept of system competitiveness, to build the country's technological innovation system upon the notion of "development from inside." The government needs to clarify its own administrative boundary, with the purpose of cultivating the creativity of the viability of enterprises and the entire society, and strive towards a monitory and regulatory government.4. China's industrial transformation cannot avoid heavy industrialization, but heavy industrialization does not necessarily equal to high carbonation. Transitioning toward a low-carbon economy is a global trend, a direction that China must keep up. Facing the complex global industrial chain, China's industrial restructuring must seek to become the core part of the value chain in order to enhance the ability to withstand long-term economic risks.5. China's industrial restructuring and upgrading should be charted at national, industrial, and enterprise levels. At the national level, it is important to further deepen the marketization reform, restrain the government's direct interference with the activities of micro-economic subjects, in order to eliminate institutional barriers to transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure. At the industrial level, we need to vigorously develop producer services, reduce transaction costs in the economic development, and promote industrial upgrading through regional collaboration among a wide range of industries. At the enterprise level, it is crucial to carefully select strategic emerging industries for investment, promote layered and gradual transformation, and explore new directions of "open innovation" for in-house R & D investment.6. Sustainable development theories provide directional guidance for China to achieve transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure in the era of globalization. We should be fully aware of how our active participation in international division of labor may impact the formation of the Chinese consumer economy, and the significance of synchronization between vigorously promoting urbanization and facilitating industrial restructuring and upgrading. It will be beneficial to promote social equity and justice not only for China to cross the "middle income trap" but also for the world to maintain prosperity and stability. |
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