| Today, every country is closely connected through economic globalization. Different countries specialize into different production stages and processes as international division is constantly deepening. These stages link each other with many production chains and build economic ties among every country involved, which interweave a large and intricate international production system. This kind of international vertical specialization system becomes a major characteristic of today’s international trade, which is the new process of evolution of international division. In this system, every country plays different roles and positions due to their different stages of production.Since the reform and open policy in1978, China opened its market to other countries, and made a fast progress in economy. After2001, when China joined WTO, more market is opened, and more involvement in the international production system is happening. With deeper participation in the international vertical specialization of production, our manufacturing industry grew fast by using low-priced labor and rich natural resources, and made a space in the global assembling stage. This kind of growth has driven Chinese GDP’s increase, developed the industries of upstream and downstream and enlarged employment and consumption. At the same time, the industry structure is getting more and more optimized. However, from the perspective of global production chain, Chinese manufacturing industry is still at low value-added stages, which causes very small parts of global economic interest and large part of other countries’ added value into Chinese export. Moreover, the core technology of product is in the hold of multinational corporations in developed countries. The technical innovation and updating of Chinese corporations depend on these MNCs, which restricts the room for manufacturing industry to upgrade. So it is very important for us to find out how to correctly look upon Chinese participating in the division of vertical specialization, how to treat Chinese position in the international division and how to understand the influence of vertical specialization on Chinese manufacturing industry upgrading.Based on the status quo of Chinese manufacturing industry, this paper will use input-output technique to measure China’s position in the international division, calculate vertical specialization and industry added value, also the coefficient of elasticity between these two indicators, to discuss the relationship between vertical specialization and Chinese manufacturing industry upgrading, and make several recommendations for the development of Chinese manufacturing industry from both macro and micro perspectives. The main parts of this paper are as follows.Firstly, this paper elaborates background and significance of this topic, and summarizes researches on vertical specialization and industry upgrading respectively. For vertical specialization, it summarizes concept, causes, measurement and economic effect, also researches about Chinese vertical specialization. For industry upgrading, it summarizes literatures from three angles, which are industrial structure upgrading, industrial chain upgrading and industrial cluster upgrading. Besides, this paper introduces the research framework and methods, major innovations and some deficiencies.Secondly, this paper introduces global value chain theory, new growth theory and comparative advantage theory. Vertical specialization and its influence on the economy of a country, also the path of the industry upgrading is explained in these theories, which is helpful for latter analysis.Thirdly, this paper measures and analyzes the degree of Chinese manufacturing industry in international vertical specialization system and its industrial link with other countries. The position of Chinese manufacturing industry in international division and Chinese industrial connection with other countries will be fully analyzed by using indicators of VSS, Backward Linkage and Forward Linkage, which come to conclusion that the level of vertical specialization in Chinese manufacturing industry is constantly deepening as a whole, among which Coke, Refined Petroleum Industry and Electrical, Optical Equipment Industry are leading forces. Industry differences of Backward and Forward Linkage indicate that Electrical, Optical Equipment Industry is the most deepest industry that integrates into international vertical specialization. Nation differences of Backward and Forward Linkage indicate that previous triangle trade pattern among China and East Asia is being replaced by ’West-China-West’pattern.Fourthly, this paper finds out the relationship between vertical specialization and industry added value of Chinese manufacturing industry. Elasticity between these two variables is also calculated, for analyzing the influence of vertical specialization on Chinese manufacturing industry upgrading. This part comes to a conclusion that, on one hand, vertical specialization can promote Chinese manufacturing industry upgrading, but on the other hand, it can also restrict the room of Chinese manufacturing industry upgrading.Finally, this paper summarizes five main conclusions and raises five proposals for the development of Chinese manufacturing industry from both macro and micro levels, that are attaching importance to market force, developing producer service industry, actively pushing forward FTA among China, Japan and South Korea, improve our companies’ capability in production and management, and opening new market actively. |
PDF Full Text Request