PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2023, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (5): 821-836.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2023.05.001

• Articles •     Next Articles

Heterogeneity of educational attainment of talents in China: Spatial and temporal patterns and driving factors

QI Honggang1(), QI Wei2, LIU Zhen2, ZHAO Meifeng1,*()   

  1. 1. School of Geographic and Environmental Sciences, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
    2. Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
  • Received:2022-09-19 Revised:2022-11-10 Online:2023-05-28 Published:2023-05-24
  • Contact: ZHAO Meifeng E-mail:qihg192@163.com;zhaomeifeng@foxmail.com
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(42101237);Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(22SHC003);University Natural Science Research Project of Jiangsu Province(21KJB170015)

Abstract:

Educational attainments of talents are different, and exploring the spatiotemporal distribution of talents with different educational attainments and its driving factors is of key significance for formulating different kinds of talent policies and optimizing the high-quality economic development pattern of the urban system. Using data of the 2005, 2010 and 2015 population sample surveys of China, this study examined the differences in the spatial and temporal patterns of China's talents with college, undergraduate, and graduate degrees from 2005 to 2015 at the prefecture level, and used a spatial econometric model to explain the driving factors of these differences. The results show that: 1) The spatial distribution of China's talents with different educational attainments was highly uneven, and talents with college, undergraduate, and graduate degrees were mainly concentrated in the municipalities, provincial capitals, and independent plan cities. There was also some concentration of talents with college and undergraduate degrees in resource-based cities of the northwestern region, such as western Inner Mongolia and northern Xinjiang. The level of uneven distribution of talents increased with the increment of educational attainments and the unevenness was alleviated through time, but the degree of its alleviation decreased with the increase of educational attainment. 2) The dynamic agglomeration of talents showed the Matthew effect—the higher the proportion of talents at the beginning of the study period, the greater the increase of the proportion of talents during the period. The intensity of the Matthew effect of dynamic agglomeration of talents gradually increased with the increase of educational attainment. 3) The concentration of China's talents with college, undergraduate, and graduate degrees was mainly economic driven, and salary played the most important role in influencing the concentration of talents with different educational attainments. The reduction of regional salary gaps in China had caused a decrease in the level of uneven distribution of talents with different educational attainments. The rapid growth of service industry and improvements in social amenities such as secondary education, medical service, and transportation had also promoted the agglomeration of talents with different educational attainments. Nevertheless, environmental factors such as elevation and green leisure space did not significantly boost the agglomeration of talents in China. The role of both economic development and social amenities in promoting talent agglomeration showed a tendency to increase with increasing educational attainments.

Key words: talent distribution, graduate, undergraduate, college, spatial and temporal patterns, driving factors