# 22.12 Bridging the innovation gap. AI and robotics as drivers of China’s urban innovation

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Zhuoying You

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Abstract:

Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are revolutionising production, yet their potential to stimulate innovation and change innovation patterns remains underexplored. This paper examines whether AI and robotics can spearhead technological innovation, with a particular focus on their capacity to deliver where other policies have mostly failed: less developed cities and regions. We resort to OLS and IV-2SLS methods to probe the direct and moderating influences of AI and robotics on technological innovation across 270 Chinese cities. We further employ quantile regression analysis to assess their impacts on innovation in more and less innovative cities. The findings reveal that AI and robotics significantly promote technological innovation, with a pronounced impact in cities at or below the technological frontier. Additionally, the use of AI and robotics improves the returns of investment in science and technology (S&T) on technological innovation. AI and robotics moderating effects are often more pronounced in less innovative cities, meaning that AI and robotics are not just powerful instruments for the promotion of innovation but also effective mechanisms to reduce the yawning gap in regional innovation between Chinese innovation hubs and the rest of the country.

# 24.06 Bridging the innovation gap. AI and robotics as drivers of China’s urban innovation

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Zhuoying You

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Abstract:

Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are revolutionising production, yet their potential to stimulate innovation and change innovation patterns remains underexplored. This paper examines whether AI and robotics can spearhead technological innovation, with a particular focus on their capacity to deliver where other policies have mostly failed: less developed cities and regions. We resort to OLS and IV-2SLS methods to probe the direct and moderating influences of AI and robotics on technological innovation across 270 Chinese cities. We further employ quantile regression analysis to assess their impacts on innovation in more and less innovative cities. The findings reveal that AI and robotics significantly promote technological innovation, with a pronounced impact in cities at or below the technological frontier. Additionally, the use of AI and robotics improves the returns of investment in science and technology (S&T) on technological innovation. AI and robotics moderating effects are often more pronounced in less innovative cities, meaning that AI and robotics are not just powerful instruments for the promotion of innovation but also effective mechanisms to reduce the yawning gap in regional innovation between Chinese innovation hubs and the rest of the country.

# 21.21 Chinese vs. US trade in an emerging country The impact of trade openness in Chile

Alexandra Sotiriou and Andrés Rodríguez-Pose

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Abstract:

This paper explores the effects of import competition on the manufacturing sector in Chile following the implementation of the country’s two largest Free Trade Agreements (FTA) (with the USA and China). Exploiting cross-industry variation in import exposure, we analyse the effects on manufacturing sales, employment and labour productivity at the finest level of industrial classification (4 digit ISIC level). We detect an overall negative effect of increased Chinese import penetration, owing to substitution effects from low and medium tech imports and a less pronounced effect from USA imports. By introducing interaction effects, we find that the levels of foreign ownership and the export intensity of the domestic industries reverse the negative effect due to the opportunities offered via participation in global value chains. An IV strategy is applied to address standard endogeneity concerns and confirm the robustness of our estimates.

# 20.44 Do Capabilities Reside in Firms or in Regions? Analysis of Related Diversification in Chinese Knowledge Production

Yiou Zhang & David L. Rigby

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Do capabilities reside in firms, in regions, or in both? Most models of related diversification, building on the early work of Hidalgo et al. (2007), examine how the structure of economic activity within a region conditions the trajectory of diversification. Inter-regional flows are sometimes added to these models. The logic here is that capabilities are largely built-up within regions and sometimes shared between them. We challenge that logic, exploring whether capabilities are more likely to be built within the firm and to flow across spatial boundaries than they are to be built within the region flowing across firm boundaries. Analysis focuses on Chinese patent data spanning 286 cities over the period 1991 to 2015. We develop standard models of related diversification before examining how the branches of multi-locational firms diversify their knowledge portfolios. Evidence shows that the knowledge structure of firms is more important than the knowledge structure of regions in shaping branch diversification. We show that the influence of the firm and the region on diversification vary significantly between headquarters (HQ) branches and non-HQ branches of firms, and between the non-HQ branches of firms that are located in core and peripheral cities of China.

# 20.05 The cost of weak institutions for innovation in China

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Min Zhang

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Does the variation in the quality of local government institutions affect the capacity of firms to innovate? This paper uses a unique dataset that combines the specific features of 2,700 firms with the institutional and socioeconomic characteristics of the 25 cities in China where they operate, in order to assess the extent to which institutional quality – measured across four dimensions: rule of law, government effectiveness, corruption, and regulatory quality – affects both the innovation probability and intensity of firms. The results of the econometric analysis show that poor institutional quality in urban China is an important barrier for firm-level innovation. In particular, a deficient rule of law, high corruption, and a weak regulatory quality strongly undermine firm-level innovation. The role of these factors is far more limited in the case of innovation intensity. Better institutions also reduce the amount of time firms spend dealing with government regulations in order to facilitate innovation. The results also indicate that the cost of weak institutions for innovation is higher for private than for state-owned firms, at least in the early stages of innovation. In general, differences in institutional quality generate local urban ecosystems that impinge on the propensity of firms to innovate.

# 19.04 Government institutions and the dynamics of urban growth in China

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Min Zhang

 

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Abstract: Economic growth in China in recent decades has largely rested on the dynamism of its cities. High economic growth has coincided with measures aimed at improving the efficiency of local governments and with a mounting political drive to curb corruption. Yet the connection between government institutions and urban growth in China remains poorly understood. This paper is the first to look into the connection between government efficiency and corruption, on the one hand, and urban growth in China, on the other and to assess what is the role of institutions relative to more traditional factors for economic growth in Chinese cities. Using panel data for 283 cities over the period between 2003 and 2014, the results show that urban growth in China is a consequence of a combination of favourable human capital, innovation, density, local conditions, foreign direct investment (FDI), and, city-level government institutions. Both government quality – especially for those cities with the best governments – and the fight against corruption at the city level have a direct effect on urban growth. Measures to tackle corruption at the provincial level matter in a more indirect way, by raising or lowering the returns of other growth-inducing factors.

# 15.28 Industry Relatedness, Agglomeration Externalities and Firm Survival in China

Canfei He, Qi Guo, David Rigby

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The importance of agglomeration externalities for economic activities is widely recognized. Recent developments highlight the importance of industry relatedness to the performance of firms, industries and regions. This study explores the determinants of firm survival in China and tests the significance of industry relatedness using firm-level data over the period 1999-2007. Industry relatedness is developed from the co-occurrence analysis of paired industries. Results based on Cox regression models show that firms benefiting from industry relatedness and governmental supports are more likely to survive. However, the influence of relatedness varies across industries and provinces. This study highlights the significant influence of local forces on firm dynamics and enriches our understanding of regional industrial restructuring in China.

# 15.22 Does Creative Destruction Work for Chinese Regions? An Empirical Study on the Articulation between Firm Exit and Entry

Yi Zhou, Canfei He & Shengjun Zhu

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Creative destruction is a key driving force behind industrial development. The continuing process of creative destruction provides an impetus to regional industrial renewal. Our analytical framework that emphasizes the ways in which firm exit creates a stimulus for firm entry, resulting in incremental innovation and productivity increase is complementary to the process of technological change and industrial renewal articulated by Schumpeter who pays attention to how new entrants bring in radical innovation and new products, making incumbents’ products and technologies obsolete and force them to exit or catch up. Using firm-level data of China’s industries during 1998-2008, this paper seeks to argue that the articulation between firm exit and entry has been constantly shaped by an assemblage of various factors, including firm characteristics, industrial linkages, regional institutions and geographical proximity.

# 15.21 Evolution of Production Space and Regional Industrial Structures in China

Qi Guo & Canfei He

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A growing literature on evolutionary economic geography concludes that regional industrial evolution is path-dependent and is determined by the pre-existing industries. This study applies the co-occurrence approach to calculate the production relatedness and portrays the production space and then examines the impact of production relatedness on regional industrial evolution. The findings report that production relatedness does underscore the regional structure change in China but shows significant regional differences in the evolution path. The coastal region has strong tendency of path dependence in its industrial evolution, while North West and South West break the path-dependent trajectory and transition into high productive sectors distant from their own production network. The results suggest that national policies can play its crucial role in creating new paths in China’s regional development. Institutions matter to allow the significant role of industry relatedness in driving regional industrial evolution.

# 11.10 Related Variety, Global Connectivity and Institutional Embeddedness: Internet Development in Beijing and Shanghai Compared

Jun Zhang

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This paper contributes to the Evolutionary Economic Geography literature by employing the conceptualization of ‘related variety’ to compare the emerging internet industry in China’s two largest city-regions: Beijing and Shanghai. Official website registration records, Alexa internet traffic counts, venture capital investment data and information gathered through interviews with internet entrepreneurs were combined to develop the analysis. The findings confirm that the replication and diversification of related variety play a leading role in shaping the locational dynamics of an emerging industry. However, the localized nature of new firm formation should not be taken for granted as transnational entrepreneurship and venture capital are playing an increasingly salient role. The contrasting experience of internet evolution in these two Chinese city-regions also suggests that a region’s enduring political-institutional embeddedness significantly influences the generation and evolution of their related variety.