Pilot Free Trade Zone And Service Industrial Structure Upgrading

In the new era,the pilot free trade zone shoulders the important mission of building an upgraded version of China’s economy.Optimizing the structure of the service industry has become an important part of the construction of the pilot free trade zone.From September 2013 to September 2020,the construction of China’s pilot free trade zone has formed a “1+3+7+1+6+3” pattern.As the construction of the free trade pilot zone continues to advance,many scholars have conducted multidimensional evaluation on its policy effects.However,based on the existing literature,it can be found that the research on the relationship between the pilot free trade zone and the structural upgrading of the service industry has not received sufficient attention.As the service industry plays an increasingly important role in China’s economic development,its structural imbalance has become a major obstacle to the high-quality development of China’s economy.it is urgent to reform the service industry.As the experimental field for a new round of reform and opening up in China,the pilot free trade zone has launched a series of reform measures such as expanding the opening up of the service industry to solve the problems existing in the structural upgrading of the service industry.It hopes to drive the structural upgrading of the service industry.Therefore,this paper is concerned about whether the establishment of the pilot free trade zone has the effect of promoting the structural upgrading of the city’s service industry.And what factors might affect this effect? The study of these issues is of great significance in further promoting and improving the construction of the pilot free trade zone.Based on the unbalanced growth theory and related literature,this paper discusses the impact mechanism of the pilot free trade zone on the structural upgrading of the service industry,and proposes corresponding research hypotheses.On this basis,a multi-period DID(difference in differences)model is established to test the structural upgrading effect of the service industry in the city-level pilot free trade zone.At the same time,the mediation effect model is used to test the mechanism of the pilot free trade zone on the structural upgrading of the service industry.And the heterogeneity of its influence on the structural upgrading of the service industry is further analyzed.At the theoretical level,this paper first puts forward the basic hypothesis that pilot free trade zone promotes the structural upgrading of the city’s service industry by constantly releasing policy dividends.On this basis,the paper analyzes the four mechanisms affecting the structural upgrading of the service industry in pilot free trade zone.(1)Technological innovation mechanism: the pilot free trade zone enhances the city’s ability to supply knowledge and technology to producer services by increasing government investment in research and development.(2)Opening up mechanism: the pilot free trade zone actively and effectively attracts foreign investment into producer services by expanding the opening up of the service industry.(3)Talent allocation mechanism: the pilot free trade zone provides high-level talents for producer services by optimizing the talent market allocation mechanism.(4)Industrial agglomeration mechanism: the pilot free trade zone focuses on promoting the agglomeration of highend services,advanced manufacturing and strategic emerging industries,and then drives the structural upgrading of the city’s service industry.At the empirical level,this paper estimates the impact of the establishment of the pilot free trade zone on the structural upgrading of the city’s service industry by using the multi-period DID method.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)The policy dividend of establishing the pilot free trade zone has significantly promoted the structural upgrading of the city’s service industry.(2)The intermediary mechanism test found that the pilot free trade zone promotes the structural upgrading of the city’s service industry by driving technological innovation,improving talent allocation and enhancing the agglomeration of producer service.(3)The heterogeneity test shows that in terms of the heterogeneity of digital economy,the better the development of digital economy in a city,the greater the role of establishing the pilot free trade zone in promoting the structural upgrading of the service industry.In terms of regional heterogeneity,the pilot free trade zone in the eastern and western regions significantly promoted the structural upgrading of the service industry,while the pilot free trade zone in the central region had no significant impact on the structural upgrading of the service industry.In terms of industry heterogeneity,the construction of the pilot free trade zone has significantly boosted information transmission,computer services and software,leasing and business services.The marginal contributions of this paper are as follows: First,this paper attempts to study the impact of the establishment of the pilot free trade zone on the structural upgrading of the city’s service industry,providing a new perspective of expanding the opening up of the pilot free trade zone to comprehensively upgrade the service industry.Second,this paper explores the internal mechanism of the establishment of the pilot free trade zone to promote the structural upgrading of the service industry,which is helpful to improve the reform and opening up of service industry in the pilot free trade zone.Thirdly,this paper further analyzes the heterogeneous effects of the pilot free trade zone in promoting the structural upgrading of the city’s service industry,which is helpful to comprehensively understanding of the impact of the establishment of the pilot free trade zone on the structural upgrading of the city’s service industry.