The Method of Measuring the Agglomeration Degree of High-Tech Industries and Its Influence Mechanism: Taking Guangdong Province as an Example

Abstract

This paper selects the Herfindahl–Hirschman index and the Moran index to study the overall agglomeration and spatial distribution of high-tech industries in Guangdong, a province of China. The location entropy, dynamic agglomeration index, and output value share are also used in this study to measure the agglomeration and changes that occur in high-tech industries in various cities of Guangdong Province. The relevant data of high-tech industries for the province is collected between 2013 and 2018. Our results show that Guangdong Province’s overall agglomeration of high-tech industries strengthened between 2013 and 2018, but industrial transfer occurred within the cities in the Pearl River Delta region to a certain extent. Regional international trade, R&D investment and patent output of the whole society, number of local scientific research personnel, economies of scale, communication level, and local taxation policies are the main factors contributing to the changes in the agglomeration of high-tech industries. Guangdong should create an open environment to increase R&D investment and expand the scale of R&D personnel and economy as well as strengthening intellectual property protection and communication level. Preferential taxation policies should be also implemented to accelerate the agglomeration of high-tech industries.