实现人才有序畅通流动是建设人才强国的关键。人才流动不仅可以传播隐性知识，同时也能促进创新要素的优化配置。来自经验世界的观察发现，人才流动贯穿中国改革开放历程，但在不同阶段呈现出差异化的流动特征。然而，既有研究并未形成一个统一的解释框架，特别是没有能够回应为什么不同阶段下人才表现为差异化的流动模式。据此，本文提出如下研究问题：（1）改革开放40年来，我国人才分布呈现出什么样的时空特征？（2）不同发展阶段下，人才为什么、以及如何发生流动？（3）人才流动带来了什么样的创新发展效应？本文综合多种纸质和电子资料，构建了1982-2020年地级层面人才数据库。在刻画40年人才时空分布特征的基础上，向前探索“前因”，从影响人才流动最重要的物质载体——基础设施入手，运用准实验设计，依次评估了以对外经济开放地区表征的制度基础设施、以高铁表征的交通基础设施、以“宽带中国”示范城市表征的信息基础设施，对于人才流动的影响及作用机制；向后揭示“后果”，分析了三种基础设施所引致的人才流动对于区域创新发展的影响。主要结论是：第一，人才流动在四大板块、南北方、省际之间呈现出丰富的时空特征。第二，制度、交通、信息基础设施按照“点设-线接-网联”的时间递进次序和空间演化形态，织就了一张要素联通的网络，分别通过集聚效应、连通效应和嵌入效应，促进了人才流动。第三，三种基础设施通过促进人才流动进而有效推动了区域创新发展。本文提炼出织网式创新发展，以理论化从基础设施到人才流动再到区域创新发展的因果链条。政府建设基础设施以编织空间联通网络，促成要素流动和配置，进而推动区域创新发展，是一个“有为政府”建设“有效市场”的过程。与已有理论相比，织网式创新发展为理解中国改革和发展历程提供了一个基于人才要素流动和空间配置视角的解释。本文的学术贡献在于：全景式刻画了人才时空分布特征；基于基础设施构建了一个解释人才流动的统一框架；揭示了人才流动与区域创新发展之间的因果关系；将不同阶段人才流动的增长和创新效应进行时间串联，解释了中国的创新发展路径；丰富了基础设施效应的研究；构建了人才数据库，因其常住人口统计口径，不仅可以测量人才流动，而且在真正意义上测量了人才的长期迁移。
Realizing the orderly and unimpeded flow of talent is the key to building China into a talent-strong country. The flow of talent can not only disseminate tacit knowledge but also promote the optimal allocation of innovative factors. Observations from the empirical world find that talent flow runs through the course of China’s reform and opening-up, but presents differentiated characteristics at different stages. However, the existing studies have not formed a unified framework to explain talent flow, especially failing to respond to why talent exhibits differentiated patterns of flow at different stages. To this end, this paper proposes the following research questions: (1) What are the spatial and temporal characteristics of talent distribution in China over the past 40 years of reform and opening up? (2) Why and how does the talent flow occur in different stages of development? (3) What kind of economic development and technological innovation effects have been brought about by talent flow?This research combines various paper and electronic sources to construct a unique database of Chinese talents at the prefecture level from 1982 to 2020. Based on characterizing the spatial and temporal distribution of talent in the past 40 years, this paper explores the “anterior cause” forward. Starting from infrastructure which is the most important physical vehicle of talent flow, this paper uses quasi-experimental designs to evaluate the impacts and mechanisms of the institutional infrastructure measured by open economic areas, transportation infrastructure measured by high-speed railway, and information infrastructure measured by “Broadband China” demonstration cities on talent flow. Then, this paper reveals the “consequences” backward and analyzes the impacts of the talent flow caused by the three types of infrastructure on regional economic growth and technological innovation. The main findings are as follows: firstly, the flow of talent shows rich spatial and temporal characteristics among the four major regions, north and south, and provinces. Secondly, the institutional, transportation, and information infrastructures have woven a network of factors interconnected according to the temporal progression and spatial evolution of “point setting, line linking, network interconnecting”, which significantly promote the talent flow through the agglomeration effect, connectivity effect, and embeddedness effect, respectively. Thirdly, the above three infrastructures promote regional economic development and technological innovation by facilitating talent flow.This paper constructs the weaving-network style innovation and development to theorize the causal chain from infrastructure to talent flow to regional economic development and technological innovation. The government builds infrastructures to weave a network of spatial connectivity to facilitate the flow and allocation of factors to promote regional development and innovation, which is a process of “effective government” building an “efficient market”. Compared with the existing theories, the weaving-network style innovation and development provides an explanation based on the perspective of talent factor flow and spatial allocation for understanding China’s reform and development process.The contributions of this paper are as flows: this paper shows a panoramic picture of the spatial and temporal distribution of talents; a coherent framework is constructed to explain the talent flow based on infrastructure; this paper builds a causal relationship between talent flow and regional development and innovation; the growth and innovation effects of talent flow at different stages are connected to explain China’s development and innovation path; this paper enriches the study of infrastructure’s effects; finally, this paper constructs a unique database of talents, which, because of the caliber of its permanent resident population statistics, not only measures the flow of talent but also, in a real sense, measures the long-term migration of talent.
