Special Issue on China and the World: Understanding Chinese Characteristics; Guest Editor: Roland Cheo, Shandong UniversityNo Access

HAS THE INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE OF WESTERN PROVINCES IN CHINA BEEN DIFFERENTIAL? EVIDENCE FROM THE SIP FRAMEWORK

JUNWEI SHI

Center for Industrial Economic Research (CIER), Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China

E-mail Address: jwshi@znufe.edu.cn

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and

HAIYAN FU

School of Finance, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China

E-mail Address: hyjw.fu@163.com

Corresponding author.

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https://doi.org/10.1142/S021759081740032XCited by:0 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

The Structure–Industry–Project (SIP) framework is developed to account for the evolution of industrial structure in less-developed regions. The dynamic relationship between structure, industry and project is investigated from an integrative perspective, which is utilized to assess the role of national policy in reshaping the regional industrial structure. A new indicator is constructed to measure the differentiation of industrial structure of a province by employing data from 29 secondary industries of western provinces of China from 2000 to 2010. The basic result shows that the differentiation of industrial structure decreased instead of increasing during the past decade. Empirical evidence demonstrates that the dysfunction of the SIP interaction leads to decreasing differentiation of the industrial structure in a province. Specifically, the change of key industry is positively associated with the differentiation of industrial structure, whereas the role of project works in a contingent way. Moreover, the project in resource-industries plays a significant role in facilitating the differentiation of industrial structure while the projects in technology-intensive and high-tech industries do nothing. The findings in this study can provide suggestion for the government to improve the effect of development policies on the optimization of industrial structure in less-developed economies.

Keywords:

JEL: L16, L88, O14

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