Institutional Evolution Research On Hi-Tech Economy

IAmerican business cycle based on information technology, also called the American hi-tech business cycle, has come to its end after a 10-year sustainable growth with the announcement made by the National Bureau of Economic Research of the United States in March 2001 that American economy has plunged into recession. We believe that the direct reason for the sustainable growth of American economy in this economic cycle is that the United States has first finished its economic structural readjustment to step into the era of hi-tech economy; and institutional factor serves as the internal motive for its successful economic structuring readjustment. The report of the Sixteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has set up the objectives of building a well-off society in an all-round way. The basic strategy to attain these objectives is to develop the hi-tech economy of China with informationalization leading the process of industrialization. Therefore it is necessary to study the United States' experience of promoting the development of hi-tech economy by institutional innovation, and the study also has practical significance for establishing the institutional framework for the development of hi-tech economy of China.IIThis paper aims to discuss the formation and development of the institution of hi-tech economy so as to find the answer to the question that what kind of institutional framework that China should establish to effectively promote the development of its hi-tech economy. With this aim as the guidance this paper sets up an analyzing framework to study the institutional evolvement of hi-tech economic development. According to Marxist's principle that logic should be integrated with history, this paper specializes in the case of American hi-tech economic development by employing empirical and dynamic analyzing method.The introduction part is the brief summary of this paper. It first clearly defines such terms as hi-tech economy, the institution of hi-tech economy and the institutional evolvement of hi-tech economy. Then it explains the reason to choose this topic for the paper and briefly describes the structure of the paper. Its innovating points and defects have also been discussed and its analyzing method explained.Chapter 1 makes a review over the study on institutional evolvement of hi-tech economy. The review of the study mainly focuses on the research made byneoinstitutional economists, innovative economists and economists home and abroad in the field of hi-tech economic institution and institutional evolvement. Their research has drawn up an institution framework for hi-tech economy. The main institutional framework of a hi-tech economy is made up of the intellectual property rights institution, enterprise institution, market system and government's administrative institution.Chapter 2 presents the analyzing framework for the institutional evolvement of hi-tech economy. Innovative returns are the motive for institutional evolvement, and the intellectual innovation group is the main drive for institutional evolvement that is actually a continuous institutional innovation process. Innovative returns refer to the economic value of knowledge, while innovative human labor is the source of innovative returns. The innovative profits of an enterprise, innovative returns of a nation and the returns on international trade of technology are the basic forms of innovative returns. Intellectual innovation group includes enterprisers of education, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs of technology, enterprisers of professionals and political enterprisers. The institutional evolvement can be described in the following process: (1) Institution, basic institution and other institutions being the same, gradually develops according to its logical order that is the development of intellectual property rights institution, enterprise institution, market system and government's administrative institution in sequence. (2) The evolvement of any institution always begins with informal ins...