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Domestic Innovation and Chinese Regional Growth, 1991–2004

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Drivers of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Regional Dynamics

Part of the book series: Advances in Spatial Science ((ADVSPATIAL))

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Abstract

Many other papers, notably those of Jefferson et al. (1996, 1997, 2002, 2003) have examined foreign investment and innovation in China. Other papers listed in the Appendix to this paper give the history and development of examinations of the modern Chinese innovation system. The contribution of this paper is its focus on the contributions of Chinese domestic innovation to economic growth at the provincial level.We have elsewhere (Latham and Yin 2009) described the nature of China’s domestic innovation system. Such an examination is a necessary part of an assessment of whether or not policies that promote domestic R&D, such as China’s Science and Technology Policy, could be productive for China’s regions. We are grateful for the comments of an anonymous referee for helping us to clarify that our work on the effects of innovation on growth cannot reveal whether or not the Science and Technology policies in place during the whole period have actually had any effect because we do not have data for the counterfactual. Our results show only that, if S&T policies promote innovation and innovation has an effect on grow, then S&T policy may be effective in promoting growth.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We have elsewhere (Latham and Yin 2009) described the nature of China’s domestic innovation system.

  2. 2.

    We are grateful for the comments of an anonymous referee for helping us to clarify that our work on the effects of innovation on growth cannot reveal whether or not the Science and Technology policies in place during the whole period have actually had any effect because we do not have data for the counterfactual. Our results show only that, if S&T policies promote innovation and innovation has an effect on grow, then S&T policy may be effective in promoting growth.

  3. 3.

    We attempted to adjust the employment data for changes in human capital as measured by years of education per worker in the provinces. However, data on the education levels of employees by province are only available from 1996 to 2000, so the education levels of employees for the years 1991–1995 and for the years 2001–2004 had to extrapolated. The equations were then estimated with labor input adjusted by educational levels, however, the estimation results were not significantly improved.

  4. 4.

    The two websites of on-line databases are www.sipo.gov.cn and www.cnipr.com.

  5. 5.

    The results are robust to the use of different depreciation rates in the construction of the patent stocks.

  6. 6.

    The capital input (total assets) is also deflated by the fixed-asset price index and the equation is re-estimated. The precision of estimated coefficients of all variables drops sharply.

  7. 7.

    The equation with an unweighted spillover variable is also estimated and no evidence of spillover effects is found at all.

  8. 8.

    Robustness checks for the results reported in Table 6 are conducted. The estimation results are insensitive to either the price index used to deflate the capital input or the depreciation rates of patent stocks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    William Latham & Hong Yin

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  1. William Latham
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  2. Hong Yin
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Correspondence to William Latham .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Spatial Economics, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

    Karima Kourtit

  2. , Department of Spatial Economics, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

    Peter Nijkamp

  3. School of Public Policy, George Mason University, University Drive 4400, Fairfax, 22030, Virgin Islands, USA

    Roger R. Stough

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Latham, W., Yin, H. (2011). Domestic Innovation and Chinese Regional Growth, 1991–2004. In: Kourtit, K., Nijkamp, P., Stough, R. (eds) Drivers of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Regional Dynamics. Advances in Spatial Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17940-2_10

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