“腾笼换鸟”:高校布局调整与区县产业协调发展

“Vacating the Cage to Change Birds”:Geographical Distribution of Higher Education and Its Impact on Local Industrial Structure Upgrading

本文借助中国高等教育扩招浪潮下新建高校或校区的准实验,考察高校区域布局调整对区县产业协调发展的影响。本文发现,新建高校或校区对所在区县的新企业数量带来了消极影响,但对新企业的产业结构高级化水平起到了显著的积极影响,由此发挥出促进地方产业“腾笼换鸟”的功能。在区域协调发展方面,新建高校或校区在距离省会城市中心较远的地区同样发挥出了促进当地新企业产业结构高级化的功能。从全国跨区域比较来看,新建高校或校区具有“放大”区位劣势的效应,非东部地区的院校或校区对当地新企业产业结构高级化的促进作用较弱。应积极发挥高校通过影响产业布局促进地方产业结构转型升级的作用,实现地方高校特色办学与产业特色发展相结合,推动区域高等教育与经济建设协调发展。

Based on the quasi-experiment of newly built universities and campuses under the wave of higher education expansion in China,this paper explores the influence of the shift in geographical distribution of universities on local industrial structure upgrading.On the whole,newly built universities and campuses have a negative impact on the number of new firms in the county.However,when we break it down by industries,we find that such impact exists in the first industry.But universities have a significant positive impact on the number of new firms in certain industries in the secondary and tertiary industry,thus playing a role by“vacating the cage to change birds”for local economy.In terms of regional coordinated development,we find that universities function as a remedy for the location disadvantage because they also foster industrial structure upgrading in counties that are relatively distant from the provincial capital city.However,cross-regional comparison shows that universities amplify location disadvantage given their better performance in eastern regions that are more developed.It is therefore important to highlight the role of higher education in promoting local industrial structure upgrading,and facilitate the development of both higher education and industrial structure in less developed regions.