A gridded establishment dataset as a proxy for economic activity in China

TL;DR

This paper introduces a high-resolution, long-term dataset of economic activity in China, capturing the spatial and temporal dynamics of over 25 million firms from 2005 to 2015, enabling detailed analysis of socioeconomic patterns.

Contribution

The study creates a novel, fine-grained, long-term dataset (GED) for China's economic activity, filling gaps in spatial resolution and temporal coverage of previous data.

Findings

Quantifies spatiotemporal patterns of establishments and urban vibrancy.

Reveals fundamental principles of industrial and economic development dynamics.

Provides a valuable resource for socioeconomic research.

Abstract

Measuring the geographical distribution of economic activity plays a key role in scientific research and policymaking. However, previous studies and data on economic activity either have a coarse spatial resolution or cover a limited time span, and the high-resolution characteristics of socioeconomic dynamics are largely unknown. Here, we construct a dataset on the economic activity of mainland China, the gridded establishment dataset (GED), which measures the volume of establishments at a 0.01$^{\circ}$ latitude by 0.01$^{\circ}$ longitude scale. Specifically, our dataset captures the geographically based opening and closing of approximately 25.5 million firms that registered in mainland China over the period 2005-2015. The characteristics of fine granularity and long-term observability give the GED a high application value. The dataset not only allows us to quantify the spatiotemporal patterns of the establishments, urban vibrancy and socioeconomic activity, but also helps us uncover the fundamental principles underlying the dynamics of industrial and economic development.