The influence and mechanism of the change of location advantage in manufacturing on the labor spatial mobility

Exploring the influence and mechanism of the change of location advantage in manufacturing on the labor spatial mobility is of great significance to optimize the spatial distribution of China's manufacturing and improve the efficiency of labor spatial allocation. Based on the data of China Industry Database and China Migrants Dynamics Survey, using the improved Shift-Share Analysis method to measure the change of location advantage, this paper reveals the changing pattern of manufacturing location advantage and the characteristics of labor spatial mobility in China, empirically analyzing the influence and mechanism of the change of location advantage in manufacturing on the labor spatial mobility by conditional logit model. The results are shown as follows: (1) On the whole, during the research period, the rise of the location advantage in manufacturing is conducive to attract the inflow of labor in this field. (2) The positive effect of employment and income brought by the rising location advantage in manufacturing promotes the labor inflow, while the negative effect of ecological environment suppresses the labor inflow. (3) There are obvious differences among industries with different technological complexities and factor intensities, cities with different geographical locations, economic locations and scales, and labor forces with different individual characteristics. The rise of the advantage location in technology- intensive and capital- intensive industries can attract labor inflow obviously, while labor- intensive and resource-intensive industries cannot. Under the background of the rising location advantage in manufacturing, cities located in central and western regions can attract labor inflow obviously, while cities located in eastern and northeast regions cannot; peripheral cities of the urban agglomeration can attract labor inflow obviously, while central cities and other cities cannot; large and medium-sized cities are conducive to attracting labor inflow, while super-large and small cities cannot. In contrast, the labor with older age, lower education, intra-province flow and agricultural hukou is more likely to choose the cities when the location advantage in manufacturing increases. © 2023 Science Press. All rights reserved.