2019 Theses Master's

Examining the Extent to which Talent Housing Policy Acts as a Catalyst for Innovation Development in China

Li, Qinyuan

Since the beginning of economic reform in 1978, China has entered a rapidly growing period where technology innovation has become the new boosting engine of promoting economic development. With the burgeoning of emerging industries in China, the demand for innovation talents is rising greatly. Due to the great gap between Chinese mega cities and other cities in the field of innovation activities, people who possess these tech and innovative skills tend to concentrate in several mega cities, which intensifies housing affordable issue in these areas. And in return, housing affordability become an obstacle for innovation development. In order to improve the living conditions of talents and optimize the environment for innovation activities, local governments have formulated a variety of talent housing policies.

As an important part of mitigating the housing burden for certain group of people, the purpose of this study is to explore if talent housing policy can affect regional innovation development and what are the impacts. This study incorporated a mixed-methodology research design to first, analyze the development and current situation of talent housing policies, and secondly explore how talent housing policy impact regional innovation activities by running several regression models using quantitative statistics. Finally, policy suggestions have been proposed based on above analysis. The research result illustrates that talent housing policy affects regional innovation development positively and this relationship can inform policy makers, urban planners, and public officials on better implementing housing policy to attract talented people.