Research On Comparative Advantage And Industrial Structure Upgrading Of China's Manufacturing Industry

Industrialization is the essence of China's manufacturing industrial structure upgrading.As a developing country,China has ever been exploring its own industrialization road,especially after radical catching-up and progressive opening-up. Whether how much dispute people have on comparative advantage theory,it affects China's strategies of openness to the outside world and industrialization deeply.The key question for scholars to explore hardly is whether comparative advantage strategy could help China upgrade manufacturing industrial structure gradually and overtake industrialized countries in the near future.There isn't universal comparative advantage strategy indeed.It has been proved that every country has a development strategy suitable to itself,by the dispute about import substitution and export orientation since 1960's and 1970's.Therefore.it is significant academically and practically to explore the suitability of comparative advantage theory to China's manufacturing industrial structure upgrade.Based on China's quick involvement in economic globalization and active exploration of new industrialization road with Chinese characteristics,the thesis tries to explore China's manufacturing industrial structure upgrading in the open economy and answer the following questions:First.could China's manufacturing industry upgrade according to comparative advantage? That is.could comparative advantage change endogenously and improve industrial structure? Second,how does capital accumulation affect the change of comparative advantage and the adjustment of industrial structure of China's manufacturing industry from the standpoint of factor endowment?According to its research area and characteristics,the thesis integrates normative analysis with positive analysis,integrates theoretical analysis with empirical analysis. integrates static analysis with dynamic analysis,and divides China's manufacturing industrial structure upgrading into two types:One type is inter-industrial upgrading which means the dominant industries transform from labor-intensive ones to capitalintensive ones orderly,the other type is intra-industrial upgrading which means the industrial characteristics transform from low quality,and low degree of processing to high quality and high degree of processing,with competitiveness increase of the existing industry.From the existing theoretical research,comparative advantage originates from many variables,such as inter-state differences in factor endowment,level of technology,demand,quality of system,and so on.Factor endowment is the research angle of the thesis,which explores the endogenous mechanism of comparative advantage,focusing on the internal mechanism of factor endowment change. especially capital accumulation,through empirical research and theoretical analysis on the performance of China's manufacturing industry,participating in inter-industry, intra-industry and intra-product specialization.The thesis attempts to study a benign cycle mechanism of comparative advantage and industrial structure upgrading,that is. when a country,adjusts its industrial structure according to comparative advantage,it will acquire much output as production activities are more efficient.At fixed saving rate,the expansion of the scale of savings can support the continued accumulation of capital,thereby improve the country's factor endowment conditions and upgrade its comparative advantage and industrial structure.Six chapters are included in the thesis whose basic structure and main contents are as follows:Chapter 1 is introduction,introducing the research background. purpose of the study,research methodology,the main content and innovation,as well as other explanations.Chapter 2 is literature review on comparative advantage and industrial structure adjustment in the open economy,analyzing the literature of comparative advantage and industrial structure adjustment under inter-industry. intra-industry and intra-product specialization respectively,exploring the determinants and applying areas of comparative advantage as well as the realization mechanism and the path of dynamic comparative advantage from the existing literature.Chapter 3 is theoretical research on long-term evolution of comparative advantage and industrial structure upgrading in the open economy,exploring theoretical framework and analytical methods of comparative advantage and industrial structure adjustment on the basis of neoclassical and endogenous growth models,studying the path and conversion mechanism of the industrial structure through the change of comparative advantage due to capital accumulation so as to build a theoretical base for the empirical analysis of China's manufacturing industrial structure upgrading.Chapter 4 is analysis on comparative advantage and inter-industrial structure upgrading of China's manufacturing industry,testing the change of comparative advantage of China's manufacturing industry and its impact on export and production structures under the background of China's opening up and the constant deepening of trade liberalization,comparing the reality of China's manufacturing industry with the theoretical analysis of the previous chapter so as to test the internal mechanism of China's manufacturing industrial structure upgrading according to comparative advantage.Chapter 5 is analysis on comparative advantage and intra-industrial structure upgrading of China's manufacturing industry,analyzing characteristics of comparative advantage of China's manufacturing industry participating in intra-industry and intra-product specialization first,and then through the combination of both,analyzing the impact of capital accumulation on comparative advantage and intra-industrial structure upgrading.Chapter 6 is about the path and measures of China's manufacturing industrial structure upgrading in the open economy,as well as conclusions of the thesis.Compared to the existing literature,the thesis has several exploratory studies:First,based on neoclassical and endogenous growth models,the thesis not only analyzes theoretically the impact of capital accumulation on the change of a country's comparative advantage and the adjustment of its industrial structure,but also finds no decrease in the value of the marginal product of capital between 1992 and 2006 by cointegration test.thereby points out an important driving force of China's capital accumulation.Second,using more than 10,000 import and export data up to SITC(Rev.3) four-digit classification in the UN comtrade database,the thesis calculates the comparative advantage indicators of China's manufacturing industries from 1992 to 2006.and analyzes the factor endowment characteristics of the change of comparative advantage,as well as the correlation between export and production structures of China's manufacturing industry in conjunction with the corresponding annual data of manufacturing sub-industries in domestic statistical yearbooks.The thesis concludes that,although dominant comparative advantage industries are still labor-intensive. some relatively capital-intensive industries are becoming comparative advantage ones or their comparative disadvantage is reducing,and that.the continuing increase of the correlation between export and production structures helps China's manufacturing industry upgrade its industrial structure through comparative advantage.Third,the thesis creates a method for the research of intra-industrial upgrading through the combination of intra-industry and intra-product specialization,and points out that enterprises,driven by the interest of higher value-added,will accumulate capital and technology independently so as to promote the upgrading of industrial structure.The capital accumulation of China's manufacturing industry has improved capital-labor ratios of the majority of industries to varying degrees,and the total change of capital-labor ratios is also reflected within industries,which create conditions for the future restructuring and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry.The tolerance and openness of comparative advantage theory,being ancient but always fresh,ensure its strong vitality.In the increasingly globalized economy today. the international specialization is increasingly fine from inter-industry to intra-industry,then to intra-product between the different stages of production,which makes comparative advantage theory be widely applied to the research of inter-industry,intra-industry and intra-product specialization,and become an important research area of industrial structure upgrading.