Qingfeng Cai , Hao Liu , Yinghao Pan , Jingxian Zou
{"title":"The innovation effects of local talent competition: The case of China's municipal “Vying for Talent” policies","authors":"Qingfeng Cai , Hao Liu , Yinghao Pan , Jingxian Zou","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103523","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines how place-based talent policies shape innovation dynamics across Chinese cities. Drawing on municipal “Vying for Talent” initiatives (2009–2019), we analyze how these strategies reconfigure firms’ innovation incentives through interactions with local institutions. Our mechanism analysis reveals that these interventions enhance corporate R&D intensity primarily by amplifying expected returns through increased direct government subsidies, and by reducing innovation costs via lower effective tax rates and the enhancement of firm-level human capital. Policy effectiveness demonstrates strong complementarity with local economic conditions, generating a “Matthew effect” whereby advantaged cities achieve greater returns. This spatial differentiation, particularly pronounced among private and high-tech firms, suggests talent policies may reinforce existing geographical hierarchies of innovation capacity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"164 ","pages":"Article 103523"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Habitat International","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397525002395","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper examines how place-based talent policies shape innovation dynamics across Chinese cities. Drawing on municipal “Vying for Talent” initiatives (2009–2019), we analyze how these strategies reconfigure firms’ innovation incentives through interactions with local institutions. Our mechanism analysis reveals that these interventions enhance corporate R&D intensity primarily by amplifying expected returns through increased direct government subsidies, and by reducing innovation costs via lower effective tax rates and the enhancement of firm-level human capital. Policy effectiveness demonstrates strong complementarity with local economic conditions, generating a “Matthew effect” whereby advantaged cities achieve greater returns. This spatial differentiation, particularly pronounced among private and high-tech firms, suggests talent policies may reinforce existing geographical hierarchies of innovation capacity.
期刊介绍:
Habitat International is dedicated to the study of urban and rural human settlements: their planning, design, production and management. Its main focus is on urbanisation in its broadest sense in the developing world. However, increasingly the interrelationships and linkages between cities and towns in the developing and developed worlds are becoming apparent and solutions to the problems that result are urgently required. The economic, social, technological and political systems of the world are intertwined and changes in one region almost always affect other regions.