Research On Spatial Technology Diffusion And Economic Growth Convergence

The rapid economic growth and the continuous widening of the regional development gap have always been the reality of China’s economic and social development,and are also an important issue in the theoretical and empirical studies of economics.The prolonged existence of disparities in the regional economic development has seriously affected the overall efficiency of economy and the steady development of society in China.Therefore,it is of great significance to narrow the gap between regional development and achieve the growth of regional economic convergence.China has been entering the new developing period,improving the capability of technological innovation to achieve economic growth has constituted an important part of the transformation of the economic development mode.Since the 90 s of last century,with the progress of the regional economic integration in China,the regional innovation system has gradually been established and improved,and the space effect of the inter-provincial technology diffusion is also increasingly prominent.Compared with the cost of investment in science and technology,the spatial diffusion of technology can effectively alleviate the growth gap of technology between different regions.At the same time,with the continuous enhancement of international competitiveness,foreign direct investment and import trade have also become the main ways for China to absorb the international technology diffusion.The inter-provincial technology diffusion and the international technology diffusion have become important ways to make up for the disparity in regional economic development.By means of technology diffusion,technology can be constantly disseminated and applied in economy and geographical space to promote the balance development of the regional economy.Therefore,starting with the measure of the effect of spatial technology diffusion,we should accurately grasp the historical context of regional innovation technology development and the reality of the diffusion of innovation technology in China,and then explore the dynamic conduction effect of spatial technology diffusion and economic growth convergence.And put forward improving spatial technology diffusion effect and as a whole of regional development.Analyzing how to narrow the gap between the economic development in the process of regional economic growth in our country is very important theoretical and practical reference for maintaining the sustained and steady growth of our economy.This dissertation first elaborates the characteristics of technological development and economic growth in China’s various provinces and regions,and then verifies the inter-provincial and international spatial technology diffusion effects,and further examines the mechanism of the spatial technology diffusion effect on economic growth convergence.Finally,analyzes the threshold effect of the spatial technology diffusion on the convergence of economic growth from the three perspectives of geographical distance,comprehensive absorptive capacity and similarity of industrial structure.The main conclusions of this dissertation are as follows:First,there are significant positive technology diffusion effects among various provinces and regions in China,which are mainly caused by technological progress.The international technology diffusion effects of foreign direct investment and trade imports are all significantly positive,but their impact mechanisms are not the same.Judging from the total effect,the technology diffusion effect of foreign direct investment is slightly greater than that of import trade.However,foreign direct investment mainly promotes regional TFP growth by affecting technological efficiency,while import trade promotes regional TFP growth by the positive overflow of technological progress.Second,there is conditional β convergence in China’s economic growth,and provincial spatial technology diffusion will be conducive to regional economic growth.The spatial technonogy diffusion effect of he foreign direct investment channels has a significant positive effect on the convergence of economic growth in all provinces and regions in China,and the effect is greater than that of provincial technology diffusion,while the spatial technology diffusion effect by the channels of import trade will weaken the convergence of regional economic growth.Third,there are club economic growth convergences in eastern and western China,and a divergence trend in central China,the effect of spatial technology diffusion on economic growth in the three major regions is not the same.Specifically,the interprovincial technology diffusion and international technology by the foreign direct investment channels have a significant positive effect on the economic growth of the eastern region.The effect of the international technology diffusion by the import trade channel on the economic growth of the eastern region is not stable.The economic growth among the central provinces has a divergence feature,there is no club convergence phenomenon,and the phenomenon of interprovincial technology diffusion between provinces is not obvious.The obvious spatial technology diffusion effect by foreign direct investment channels and import trade channels among the provinces and regions in central China will weaken the regional economic growth trend.There is a certain competition relationship among the provinces in central China in terms of technological progress,the foreign direct investment and import trade.The economic growth among the various provinces and regions in western China is characterized by the convergence of clubs.There is a significant spatial technology diffusion among the western provinces,and it has a positive effect on economic growth.The obvious spatial technology diffusion by he foreign direct investment channels and import trade channels will weaken the trend of regional economic growth.Fourthly,there is a geographical distance threshold of 1,603.61 km between provincial technological space and a spatial distance of more than 1,603.61 km the spatial technology diffusion effect is not significant,and it does not contribute much to regional economic growth and convergence.The spatial technology diffusion of foreign direct investment has the dual threshold effect of human capital and R&D capital investment.The spatial technology diffusion of import trade has the dual threshold effect of industrial structure similarity.The new contributions of this paper are as follows: In the aspect of research perspective,we study the economic growth convergence from the perspective of technology diffusion and broaden the research scope of convergence,which has certain research characteristics.In the aspect of research methods,it comprehensively examines the characteristics of technological development and economic growth in China’s provinces and regions from a two-dimensional perspective of time and space,and uses visual methods to demonstrate the spatial distribution of technology and economic growth,the spatial factors are incorporated into the measurement of technology diffusion effect and the model of spatial technology diffusion and economic growth convergence.Some useful conclusions are obtained.which provides a strong empirical evidence for improving the technology diffusion and coordination of regional economic development in China.In the aspect of research contents,ta comprehensive empirical test has been conducted on the convergence of spatial technology diffusion and economic growth in the three major channels of interprovincial,foreign direct investment,and international import trade,which complements research on convergence of technology diffusion and economic growth.