数字基础设施建设与城市高技能创业人才吸引

Digital Infrastructure Construction and Urban Attraction for High-skilled Migrant Entrepreneurial Talents

创业对经济发展活力有显著的促进作用,城市如何通过有效方式吸引高技能创业人才来当地开展创业活动值得深入研究。本文基于2011—2018年中国流动人口动态监测调查数据中高技能创业者的微观层面数据和285个地级市城市层面数据构建平衡面板数据,将“宽带中国”试点政策视为一项准自然实验,运用渐进双重差分模型估计该试点政策对城市外来高技能创业人才吸引的影响。研究发现,“宽带中国”试点政策显著提高了城市对高技能流动人口创业者的吸引力。路径分析表明,“宽带中国”试点政策能够通过激发数字化创业资源提升城市对外来高技能创业人才的吸引力。在经过一系列稳健性检验后,本文结论依然成立。本文结论对理解如何充分发挥城市数字基础设施建设的数字化创业资源带动效应,吸引流动人口中的高技能创业人才流入,促进当地经济高质量发展提供了经验证据和政策参考。

Entrepreneurship has a significant positive effect on enhancing economic vitality.It is worth exploring how cities can effectively attract high-skilled migrant entrepreneurial talents(hereinafter referred to as high-skilled talents)to carry out entrepreneurial activities.Especially,in the context of information infrastructure empowered by digital technology,can digital infrastructure construction guide the inflow of high-skilled talents?Based on the micro-level data of high-skilled migrant entrepreneurs in the China Migrants Dynamic Survey from 2011 to 2018,and the macro-level data from 285 prefecture-level cities,this paper obtains balanced panel data.The study considers the Broadband China pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment and employs the staggered difference-in-differences method to estimate the effect of the pilot policy on the urban attraction for high-skilled talents.The results indicate that the Broadband China pilot policy significantly improves urban attraction for high-skilled migrant entrepreneurs.Path analysis shows that the pilot policy attracts high-skilled migrant entrepreneurs by stimulating digital entrepreneurial resources.Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the pilot policy has different impacts on urban attraction for high-skilled migrant entrepreneurs in terms of region,size,and science and technology level.Specifically,first,regional heterogeneity analysis shows that in the central and northeastern regions,cities attract high-skilled migrant entrepreneurs with college or bachelor's degrees,whereas in the western region,the attraction is mainly inclined towards entrepreneurs with bachelor's degrees.Second,the Broadband China pilot policy has only increased the attraction of medium-sized cities for entrepreneurs with bachelor's degrees and the attraction of large cities for entrepreneurs with college or bachelor's degrees.Third,in terms of the urban science and technology level,the pilot policy enhances the attraction of low-tech cities for high-skilled talents with college or bachelor's degrees.Finally,the pilot policy significantly boosts urban attraction for high-tech start-ups,as well as urban entrepreneurial vitality.This study contributes to the literature in the following aspects.First,this study considers the Broadband China pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment and explores the positive impact of digital infrastructure construction on the inflow of urban high-skilled migrant entrepreneurs.Previous studies have primarily focused on the effects of urban infrastructure such as education,transportation,medical care,and entertainment on talent attraction,as well as the impact of economic development on migrant entrepreneurs.This paper focuses on urban digital infrastructure,and expands the research on the influencing factors of urban attraction for high-skilled migrant entrepreneurs,thereby providing evidence for a deeper understanding of the effect of urban digital infrastructure construction on the inflow of entrepreneurs.Second,this paper examines the path through which digital infrastructure construction enhances the urban attraction for high-skilled talents by stimulating digital entrepreneurial resources.This enriches the mechanism of digital infrastructure construction in pilot cities to improve the urban attraction for high-skilled talents.From the perspective of technology affordance,digital infrastructure construction has given rise to a large quantity of digital entrepreneurial resources and provided diversified digital entrepreneurial opportunities.For various high-skilled talents,digital infrastructure construction will exert different effects.Based on these digital entrepreneurial resources and their own resource endowments,entrepreneurs will maximize the use of digital entrepreneurial resources to capture entrepreneurial opportunities.The findings provide empirical evidence and policy implications for understanding how to fully leverage the driving effect of digital entrepreneurial resources in urban digital infrastructure construction,attract high-skilled talents,and promote high-quality development of the local economy.