IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v92y2026icp986-1010.html

Navigating demographic shifts: Population ageing and corporate cross-regional expansion

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Li
  • Zhao, Haodong
  • Shao, Bing
  • Dai, Yunhao

Abstract

While cross-regional capital flows are essential for resource allocation, their role in mitigating demographic pressures remains underexplored. This study examines how population ageing shapes corporate cross-regional expansion in China. Using robust identification strategies including instrumental variable estimation and exogenous policy shocks, we find that local ageing acts as a significant push factor incentivizing firms to establish non-local subsidiaries to mitigate rising labor cost pressures. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that this effect is driven by coping ability and expansion motivation, appearing more prominent among non-SOEs and firms with a lower digitalization degree, as well as labor-intensive firms and those in highly competitive industries. Our findings underscore that cross-regional expansion is a critical strategic response to navigate demographic shifts while contributing to a unified national market, offering key insights into sustaining corporate competitiveness in a graying society.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Li & Zhao, Haodong & Shao, Bing & Dai, Yunhao, 2026. "Navigating demographic shifts: Population ageing and corporate cross-regional expansion," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 986-1010.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:92:y:2026:i:c:p:986-1010
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2026.06.044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592626002389
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2026.06.044?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:92:y:2026:i:c:p:986-1010. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.