Structural Evolution of Taiwan Urban Centers—A Case of Employment Structural Concentration

Abstract

The rapid industrialization and urbanization in the Asian region reflect growth based on needs, a general adoption of scale economies within its urban centers as globalization and the informationalization of the world economy have both affected the process of urbanization. In Taiwan, forces of comparative advantage within the urban core cause labor-market pooling and sectoral clustering toward the production of services; In the 1980s, a dual process of rapid urbanization and industrialization took place. The rural- urban migration flow was observed as more than 76.6% percent of the population lives in the urban areas; the industrialization of the region can be detected thru the sectoral employment increase accompanied by a steady decline of manufacturing employment. In this paper, the period of 1986 to 2001 was examined, and the macro-scale sectoral changes in the urban and industry structures thru Gini Coefficient of Specialization are identified. Due to factors of urbanization, employment clustering and information economy, in parallel to the global development, cities within the urban system in Taiwan are converging toward localization economies, as the urban systems is showing convergence of employment structure within their metropolis proper.