Urban attraction policies for science and technology talent: Case studies of Chinese cities

Abstract

In the modern era of rapid socio-economic development, high-skill human resources, especially science and technology talents, have become pivotal to promoting urban development. For decades, there has been fierce competition among local governments in China to issue more competitive policies to attract talents to live and work in the cities. As China’s first-tier cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen have tried to achieve the goal of becoming a scientific and technological innovation center with global influence. Thus, these cities have implemented their local policies on talents. This study adopts a case study research method to analyze the contexts of local government policies on the attraction of science and technology talents through the economic environment, science and technology situation, policy instruments, and talent development stages. Taking the relevant local initiative policies issued by Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen from 2011 to 2020, a comparative analysis of the four cities is carried out to find out the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation of the policies in each city. The research findings show that the talent attraction competitions between the four cities are driven by various factors such as national policy orientation and the demands for high-quality urban developments. The attraction of science and technology talents of first-tier cities has shown various approaches and high diversity. The result also shows that the lack of cooperation between Guangzhou and Shenzhen causes the talent attraction in these two cities to be inferior to Beijing and Shanghai. In addition, the result shows that the supply-based policy instruments in the science and technology policies are likely to be adequate in these cities; however, the supply of demand-based policy instruments and environment-based policy instruments seems insufficient. In conclusion, in addition to the national policies, the Chinese first-tier cities initiated policies on science and technology talent attraction are relatively successful in drawing high-skill human resources to the cities. The study also suggests relevant urban strategies for improving the policies by increasing more collaboration among the cities to improve the efficiency of the talent attraction policy resulting in accelerating industrial upgrading and sustainable urban development.