Regional advantage is an important concept in regional economics. Most scholars divide it into traditional comparative advantage and modern competitive advantage.[1]
Regional advantage refers to the special favorable conditions that a region has in one or more of the natural, economic, technological, management and social factors during its economic development, which makes the region more competitive, has higher resource utilization efficiency, and maintains the overall efficiency of the region at a higher level.The premise of regional advantages is regional differences.
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1. Global
Regional advantages are first and foremost a global concept. Without overall coordination and support from outside the region, regional advantages cannot be brought into play, and even regional advantages may turn into disadvantages.That is to say, we should pay attention to the factors of mutual benefit between regions and form a reasonable pattern of regional division and cooperation.The exertion of regional advantages must depend on the two markets inside and outside the region.This requires not only to be familiar with the region's own conditions, strengths and weaknesses, but also to pay attention to the relationship between regions and the changing trend of the macroeconomic background on which the region depends, which is the overall nature of regional advantages.
2. Comprehensiveness
The regional conditions should be comprehensively analyzed, that is, the exertion of regional advantages must have the coordination and cooperation of various elements within the region.The understanding that what is unique to the region is the regional advantage is one-sided.
3. Spatial
Regional advantages have obvious regional characteristics, which exist within the region.Such as energy, minerals, land or transportation, labor, capital, science and technology, natural or cultural landscape and other conditions owned by the region.
4. Timeliness
Regional advantages and disadvantages can be transformed with time.
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There are many different types of regional advantages from different perspectives and standards.
Basic types of regional advantages
(1) Natural advantages.Natural advantages mainly refer to advantages in natural conditions and natural resources.For the development of agriculture, extractive industry, resource oriented processing industry, transportation industry and tourism, natural conditions and resources often have a decisive impact.Therefore, regional natural conditions and natural resource advantages can be further subdivided into agricultural resource advantages, industrial resource advantages, tourism resource advantages, transportation development condition advantages, etc.
(2) Cultural advantages.In addition to population factors, the role of human resources in regional development is generally not as direct and obvious as that of economic resources, but its impact is ubiquitous and far-reaching.One of the important reasons for the poor natural resources and the advanced natural resources in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in China is that these regions enjoy obvious advantages in human resources.The advantages and disadvantages of regional human resources are mainly shown in the following two aspects: ① population resources, including the quantity, quality and distribution of population.People are both producers and consumers. The number of people determines the labor supply capacity and consumption market capacity of a region.As far as China is concerned, because most provinces are densely populated, the advantages and disadvantages of population resources mainly depend on population quality.To a certain extent, the population has become a restrictive factor restricting the economic and social development of many provinces. ②Historical basis and cultural tradition.The development of any region always starts from the specific space-time background, and at the same time, the results of the past development (existing social infrastructure, cultural traditions and other human resources) must be accepted as heritage, becoming the advantages or disadvantages of developing the market economy.
(3) Economic advantages.It mainly includes: ① capital advantage.The advantages and disadvantages of regional capital are mainly reflected in the scale, structure, agglomeration capacity and reproduction capacity of capital.The larger the capital scale of a region, the stronger the strength of the region;Whether the capital structure is reasonable or not has an important impact on the speed and quality of economic growth;The size of capital reproduction capacity to a large extent represents the future production capacity of the region. ②Industrial advantages.Whether a region has industrial advantages depends mainly on the competitiveness of the regional industry and the ability to transform the industrial structure. ③Product advantages.If the proportion of high-end new products in a region is larger, the quality level is higher, the profit level is better, and the market coverage is wider, the economy of the region is more developed, and the economic strength and competitiveness are stronger. ④Scale advantage.To measure the scale advantage of a region, it is mainly to analyze the capacity of regional large-scale production, because large-scale production can achieve higher labor productivity and lower production costs, which is incomparable to decentralized small-scale productionEconomies of scale。Of course, the production of SMEs plays an important role in the social division of labor.Therefore, the rationality of the scale structure cannot be evaluated simply by the size, but whether the existing scale structure fully reflects the technical and economic characteristics of various sectors of the regional economy, and thus whether it can fully use resources to judge whether it has advantages. ⑤Infrastructure advantages.On the one hand, infrastructure sector is the result of regional economic division of labor, on the other hand, it plays an important role in ensuring it.Different regions have different requirements for infrastructure. Therefore, to measure the advantages and disadvantages of infrastructure in different regions, it mainly depends on whether the infrastructure can adapt to and ensure the needs of regional economic division. ⑥Market advantages.The regional market situation mainly includes the composition of market system (commodity market and factor market), the proportion of domestic trade market and foreign trade market, market share distribution (market share of products outside the region in the region and market share of products inside the region in the region outside the region), market price system, market demand composition, etc.The more perfect a region's market system is, the stronger its natural growth capacity will be;The greater the proportion of interregional trade and foreign trade import and export, the more gains from interregional and international division of labor;The greater the market share, the better the production and development prospects;The more favorable the price system is, the more favorable the region's position in the interregional distribution of national income is. ⑦Enterprise organization structureAdvantages.The organizational structure of enterprises mainly refers to the composition of various property rights organizations, business organizations and specialized forms of division and cooperation.Enterprises with different organizational forms have great differences in operating mechanism, dynamic mechanism, operating effect and flexibility to adapt to market changes.Analyzing this difference to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the organizational structure of enterprises in various regions can help us understand the regional advantages more comprehensively and make reasonable organizational structure countermeasures. ⑧Economic benefit advantage.To evaluate whether regional economic benefits have advantages, different indicators can be used from different aspects, includingeconomic benefits indicatorsThere are: total factor productivity, capital output rateTotal labor productivity；The gross regional product and per capita income of the overall benefit level of the region are investigated.To comprehensively evaluate the advantages of regional economic benefits, it is necessary to organically combine multiple indicators and multiple aspects, or conduct systematic and comprehensive quantitative analysis through a set of indicator systems.
(4) Technical advantages.Different from other economic factors, technological factors in economic development do not have their own independent form of existence, but must rely on other factors to exist and play a role, but this does not prevent more and more people from attaching great importance to it as an independent factor.Due to the differences in natural, economic and social conditions among regions, the spatial distribution and diffusion process of technological innovation are unbalanced.This imbalance makes the gap and comparative advantage between regions constantly change, and further changes the interrelation between regions.The analysis of regional technical advantages and disadvantages is mainly carried out from three aspects: first, measure the technical level of various production inputs and economic management modes in the region, such as labor force, entrepreneurs, production process equipment, raw material composition, labor organization forms and management methods;The second is to evaluate regional technological innovation capability, including scientific research and technological development strength, technology introduction and digestion, application and diffusion of technological achievements, etc;The third is to investigate the development of the technology market, such as market size, market organization, etc.To sum up the above aspects, we can evaluate the comprehensive scientific and technological strength of the region as a whole.
(5) Policy advantages.Regional policies include not only the policies of each region itself, but also the relations between the central and local governments, and between local governments.Therefore, the advantages and disadvantages of regional policies can be measured from two aspects: one is to compare the relative position of each region in national policies;The second is to compare the independent development policies of different regions.Regional policy advantages mainly include the advantages of enjoying national preferential policies, the advantages of regional effects of national policies and the advantages of regional independent development policies.
Stage type of regional advantages
(1) Comparative advantage.Comparative advantage refers to the special favorable conditions that a region has in its development process relative to a certain goal, which are embodied in natural endowments (location, natural resources) or acquired endowments (economic resources, social resources, etc.).The regional comparative advantage has the following characteristics: ① The comparative advantage is relative, that is, the comparative advantage of a region can only be revealed through comparison with other regions.The advantages of a lower level region are not necessarily advantages compared with a higher level region.Therefore, without the reference system of other regions and the whole regional system, it is difficult to have regional comparative advantage. ②Comparative advantage is variable.As the conditions that constitute the regional comparative advantage are constantly changing, with the development of social economy, some favorable conditions will gradually become the general conditions or even unfavorable conditions for regional economic development, and some general conditions or unfavorable conditions may also become favorable conditions, thus constituting the comparative advantage of regional economic development. ③Comparative advantage has the dual characteristics of regional and trans regional.In terms of specific dependent space, the comparative advantage of a region is that of this region, not any other region;However, in terms of its significance and impact, the comparative advantage of a region will exceed the scope of the region, with cross regional significance.This also means that regional economic development should establish a cross regional awareness, not for all, but for use.
(2) Competitive advantage.Regional competitive advantage can be understood from two levels: the low-level regional competitive advantage is a "low-cost competitive advantage", and the high-level regional competitive advantage is a "product differentiation competitive advantage".The source of low-cost competitive advantage usually includes the following aspects: special resource advantage (lower labor and raw material costs), production technology and production methods that other competitors can obtain with lower costs, development of economies of scale, etc.The competitive advantage of product differentiation is based on the continuous investment and innovation in equipment, technology, management and marketing to create differentiated products that better meet customer needs.
Other classifications of regional advantages
(1) Absolute advantage and relative advantage.Absolute advantage refers to the absolutely favorable production conditions of one region relative to another region. The production cost of this product is the lowest in this region, and the maximum profit can be obtained.The comparative advantage means that each region has its own relatively favorable production conditions. If the region can use the production factors in the industries that are most conducive to the development of the region, it will gain comparative benefits.
(2) Advantages in conditions, production, products and commodities. ①Conditional advantages: refer to regional advantages in terms of geographical location, natural conditions, natural resources and historical socio-economic foundation.This advantage is not only a congenital regional advantage, but also a potential advantage that people can transform and use.This advantage is the basis for regional economic development, and also the premise for other regional advantages to play a role. ②Production advantage: refers to the advantage of a region in terms of certain production compared with other regions.For example, factories, railways and farmlands have been built in the region.It is the result of some transformation and utilization of conditional advantages, and it is an advantage that can be used.It is based on the condition advantage and the product advantage. ③Product advantage: it is the realization of regional production advantage and the result of rational utilization of production advantage, but it is not necessarily a practical advantage. ④Commodity advantage: This is the practical advantage of the region, that is, a certain commodity or a certain type of commodity in the region has both production scale, brand and market competitiveness.
(3) Tangible and intangible advantages.Each area has certaingeographical position, natural environment, resource status, economic development level, industrial structure, transportation and communication network, municipal facilities, etc., which constitute the material basis of regional development, belong to "hardware", they are decisive for the existing appearance of a specific region, and also affect future development.These regional advantages are called tangible advantages.On the other hand, some non-material "software" elements, such as the cultural level and business tradition of residents, the skill level of workers, the level of science and education, the convenience of information transmission, the breadth and direction of external contacts, will also have a significant impact on the future development of regions or cities.One aspect may be an advantage, which we call intangible advantage.Many large cities and developed regions may have both advantages.
(4) Space advantage and time advantage.Space advantage refers to having good location conditions, while time advantage refers to a good opportunity to develop a project.[2]
