The Empirical Analysis On The Effect Of Technology Diffusion On R&D Efficiency Of China’s Manufacturing Industry

Since the reform and opening,China has been committed to the development of scientific and technological innovation.Especially with the disappearance of demographic dividend and low-cost advantages of natural resources,the strategy to create an innovative country was proposed by the government,and more research and development(R&D)efforts has been made.In 2014,the proportion of R&D expenditure to GDP has reached 2.04%,far more than the United Kingdom,Canada,Italy,Spain and other developed countries.But for a long time,China’s overall technical level is still relatively backward.In recent years,with the emergence of economic "new normal",the speed of economic growth slowed down,there’s mismatching between R&D investment in high-speed growth and economic development.In the view of input-output,it’s appropriate to think that China’s research and development efficiency is low in recent years.Reserch on R&D Efficiency has important practical significance to China’s transformation of economic development mode,optimization and upgrading of industrial structure.Using industry level data from 25 two-digit Iindustries of China’s manufacturing between 2002 and 2014,this paper measures their R&D efficiency,and investigates whether firm scale,market competition,ownership structure,international trade,FDI and technology introduction affact R&D efficiency in China’s manufacturing.Finally,according to the stochastic frontier model and the estimation result of econometric model,the internal system score and the external spill score are constructed,and then,the industrial structure characteristics of the manufacturing industry under the influence of technology diffusion are investigated.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)The average level of R&D efficiency in China’s manufacturing is 0.548 between 2002 and 2014,the overall level is a bit low and there is still a lot of room for improvomet.During the sample period,the R&D efficiency of manufacturing showed the characteristics of phased fluctuation.The first stage was the slow rise period under extensive economic mode from 2002 to 2008,the second stage was the rapid rise period under the stimulation of the economic crisis,the third stage was the gradual decline period under The "new normal" economy.In the view of sub-sectors,there is a wide gap between the R&D efficiency of different industries.In addition,by compare the industries that R&D efficiency is higher than the average level in manufacturing with the industries that R&D efficiency is lower than the average level in manufacturing,this paper found that the R&D efficiency of the industries which R&D investment and R&D activities density are higher is relatively high,and then,high R&D efficiency is based on a certain scale.(2)Through statistical test to the regression model,we find that the traditional institutional factors and the technology diffusion path have significant influence on the R&D efficiency.The estimate of firm scale is significantly negative,indicating that the relationship beteen firm scale and R&D efficiency is positive.By expanding the scale of the industry,the efficiency of the manufacturing industry can be improved.The market competition is positively related to the R&D efficiency,and the appropriate market competition is beneficial to the improvement of R&D efficiency in manufacturing.Due to the existence of the principal-agent problem,the inefficiency of the state-owned enterprises has reduced the overall level of R&D efficiency,resulting in a negative correlation between the ownership structure and the R&D efficiency.the "outflow effect" of foreign investment is so strong that it offsets other positive spillover effects,which is not conducive to the improvement in R&D efficiency.Estimates associated to import and export are negative,indicating that import and export has positive impact on R&D efficiency.The interactive items of technology introduction and R&D capital is significantly negative,indicating that there’s "threshold effect" in the process to introduct foreign technology.And R&D capital has worked as a lever.(3)By comparing the internal affects and the external affects on R&D efficiency,this paper divides China’s manufacturing industry into four categories:type A-internal and external suppression,the lack of competition within the market and external "crowing out Effect" from FDI is the main reasons for the low efficiency of the industry;type B-internal suppression,the high proportion of state-owned enterprises is the common characteristics of these industries,due to the low efficiency of state-owned enterprises,the overall efficiency of the industry has been reduced;Type C-harmonious development,benefits from good internal institutional structure and technology spillovers,such industries are more efficient.However,as opposed to computers,communications and other electronic equipment manufacturing,there is still room for improvement in other manufacturing industries;Type D-spillover suppression,for these industries,the positive spillover effect from import,export and technology introdution is generally low,and the "crowing out Effect" from FDI is so strong that it completely offsets the spillover effect of other technology diffusion routes,resulting in that external spillover effect is negative.Finally,by investigate the relationship between plus-minus of external spillover and the level of R&D efficiency,this paper finds that for industries that external spillover effect is positive,their R&D efficiency are higher than the industry average level.Thus we conclude that technology diffusion is the key factor which affacts R&D efficiency.