R&D Investment、Resource Mismatch And Total Factor Productivity

Since the reform and opening up,the Chinese economy has achieved remarkable achievements.The average growth rate of GDP in the period from 1979 to 2016 was 9.6%.However,the sustained and rapid growth of China’s economy relies to a large extent on the quantitative expansion of factors such as labor,capital,and natural resources.This extensive economic development mode makes China’s environmental pollution,waste of resources,industrial structure imbalance and regional development imbalances prominent.As China’s economy enters the "new normal" stage,the transformation of economic development mode characterized by improving total factor productivity is particularly critical for achieving sustainable and high-quality development in China.The two most important ways to improve the total factor productivity are: one is to improve the utilization efficiency of factor resources brought about by technological innovation;the other is to improve the efficiency of resource allocation brought about by market-oriented reform.The report of the Nineteenth National Congress of the CPC puts forward the task of speeding up the construction of an innovative country,improving the property rights system and the reform of factor market-oriented allocation,which also reflects the government’s emphasis on the dynamic mechanism of improving production efficiency to a certain extent.The source of technological innovation comes from the R&D investment activities of enterprises,along with the implementation of China’s “rejuvenation of the country through science and education” and “innovative countries”,especially the goal of strengthening the innovation capability in the “13th Five-Year Plan”,which has greatly stimulated China’s innovation.From 1995 to 2016,the internal expenditure of R&D in China increased from 34.869 billion yuan in the first year to 156.675 billion yuan in the last year.The total time equivalent of R&D personnel increased from 751,700 people per year to 3,878,100 yuan per year.However,the rapid increase of innovation investment did not bring about significant improvement in TFP.After 2008,China’s total factor productivity dropped sharply to 2.6%,and all the way down to 1% in 2016.In addition,due to historical and realistic reasons,the process of factor market-oriented reform in China is not thorough,and the problem of resource mismatch is still serious.Hsieh & Klenow(2009)found that if China’s resource allocation efficiency is raised to the US level,it’s total factor productivity can be get a 30%-50% increase.Based on the above background,this paper takes the theory of innovation and economic growth,the theory of resource mismatch and the theory of total factor productivity as the theoretical basis.It stems from the analysis and answer to two real problems.The first is the influence of R&D input and resource mismatch on total factor productivity.The second is the role of resource mismatch in R&D input affecting total factor productivity.The main content can be divided into four parts: Firstly,it summarizes domestic and foreign theoretical and empirical research on innovation and economic growth,resource mismatch,and total factor productivity.Secondly,it analyzes the mechanism of R&D input on total factor productivity,the mechanism of resource mismatching on total factor productivity,and the indirect mechanism of R&D input and resource mismatching on total factor productivity.Again,collect relevant data and analyze the current situation of R&D input,resource mismatch and total factor productivity.Finally,synthesizing R&D input,resource mismatch and the interaction terms of the two construct a more generalized model with multiple explanatory variables,and analyze the influence degree and direction of each factor on total factor productivity.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)Theoretical research shows that R&D investment has a positive effect on total factor productivity.Endogenous economic growth theory believes that sustained economic growth is inseparable from innovation.Innovation is a key factor driving the growth of total factor productivity.Resource mismatch plays a significant inhibiting role in the improvement of total factor productivity.The theory of factor price mechanism is the basis of resource mismatch theory.The theory of factor flow mechanism is the application of factor price mechanism theory.The distortion of factor price leads to the deviation of resources from optimal allocation and ultimately reduces production efficiency.The estimated coefficient of the interaction item between R&D input and resource mismatch is negative,indicating that resource mismatch weakens the promotion of R&D input to total factor productivity.Resource mismatch in addition to the production efficiency has a direct inhibitory effect,and also restrains R&D input in regions through resource misplacement effects,rent-seeking effects,crowding out and demand inhibition effects,thereby affecting total factor productivity.(2)Empirical studies show that R&D input and resource mismatch have a significant impact on total factor productivity,and resource mismatch plays an important role in R&D input affecting total factor productivity.First,there is a clear spatial correlation between China’s total factor productivity,and there are obvious spatial dependence characteristics between neighboring provinces,autonomous regions and municipalities.Second,R&D personnel input and R&D capital investment have a positive effect on total factor productivity.The increase in R&D investment not only brings technological innovation but also brings management innovation.In addition,while promoting the production efficiency of enterprises,innovative enterprises promote the productivity improvement of other enterprises through technology spillover effects,and ultimately promote the overall factor productivity of the economy.Third,the role of labor mismatch and capital mismatch in total factor productivity is significantly negative.China’s factor market-oriented reform is not complete,resulting in resource allocation violate the market rules and the optimal state of the initial economy.The efficient enterprises can not obtain the resource supply to meet the demand and those inefficient enterprises that should have withdrawn from the market instead obtain sufficient production resources and expand the scale,which in turn leads to the poor efficiency of the entire national economy.Fourth,the mismatch of resources weakens promotion effect of R&D investment on total factor productivity,which is bound to cause enterprises to vigorously develop capital-intensive enterprises.Meanwhile,"unproductive rent-seeking" will also crowd out the resources of enterprises.The mismatch of resources will affect the R&D investment and ultimately hinder the improvement of total factor productivity.Fifth,trade openness,human capital and infrastructure have significant positive effects on regional total factor productivity,while state-owned economy has negative effects on production efficiency.According to the research conclusions of this paper,it puts forward some policy suggestions,such as deepening the reform of economic development mode represented by improving total factor productivity,giving full play to the dominant position of enterprises in innovation,creating a good innovation environment and accelerating the reform of market-oriented allocation of factors.