“Flying geese” in China: The textile and apparel industry's pattern of migration

•The relocation of textile and apparel firms from the eastern region to the interior region in China has occurred since around 2005.•The sector also witnesses a shift in production from consumer goods to capital goods.•The timing of “flying geese” corresponds to the arrival of the Lewis Turning Point. China has large regional variations in both factor endowments and levels of economic development. In principle, some industrial enterprises will relocate to the inland regions from the coastal regions to take advantage of lower wage rates and land prices, provided that the regions are different enough. However, few studies have empirically tested whether this kind of “flying geese” pattern of domestic industrial relocation has occurred on the ground or not. Using data from the textile and apparel industry from 1998 to 2011, this paper shows the existence of the “flying geese” pattern of industrial relocation. Data show that before around 2005, the textile and apparel industry was clustered in the eastern region of China, but it has since shifted toward the central and western regions.