关键词: 地理约束, 交通, 知识合作, 空间配置偏好

Abstract: Although the spatial reallocation of knowledge resources is crucial for high-quality economic development, the related studies are limited. This paper attempts to bridge the gap by answering the questions: How does the reduction of transportation costs, subject to geographical constraints, affect knowledge collaboration between skilled labors of different locations, and how does it alter the spatial preferences, tendencies, and strategies for knowledge allocation among collaboration partners in different locations? To this end, we first construct a location selection model that incorporates different geographical constraints, changes in transportation costs, and knowledge collaborations among heterogeneous labor. The model shows that the improvement of inter-city transportation networks reduces the time cost of face-to-face communication between skilled labor, and increases the matching quality of knowledge collaborations, which in turn promotes the formation and performance of distant collaborations. Consequently, knowledge resources of a region shift from the inside to the outside of the region. In addition, when the markets accessible to a city increase, the city’ s spatial preference for knowledge allocation will decrease first and then increase, making the distribution of its knowledge resources more centralized. Finally, we use China’ s co-publication data from 2006 to 2015 to estimate the effect of high-speed rail connection between cities on the spatial allocation of knowledge resources via the multi-period DID method, and the empirical results verify our model.

Key words: Geographical Constraints, Transportation, Knowledge Collaboration, Preference for Spatial Allocation