Did China’s regional planning policies promote employment in the science and technology services sector?

This paper analyzes the impact of regional planning policies on employment in the field of scientific and technological services, using the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration strategy in China as a case study. A difference-in-differences (DID) model is applied to conduct a quasi-natural experiment. The paper systematically examines the policy-driven effects of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration strategy on employment in scientific and technological services, the heterogeneity of the policy effects from the perspective of cross-regional industrial cooperation, and the moderating role of regional per capita income levels. The empirical results show that after controlling for provincial and year-fixed effects, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration strategy led to a 24.62% increase in employment in the scientific and technological services sector in the province. The results pass both the parallel trends test and the placebo test. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the integration strategy resulted in an 18.31% increase in employment in the scientific and technological services sector in the “core radiation area” provinces and a 25.10% increase in the “peripheral cooperation area” provinces. The findings of this study offer a new perspective on evaluating the policy implementation effects of regional planning policies on talent employment.