Research On The Influence Of Technological Innovation And Human Capital On Total Factor Productivity

Along with China’s economic growth rate slows down and economic development enters a new normal,the contradiction between natural resources and environmental issues has become increasingly tense,proposing new challenges to the sustainable development of China’s economic.The "Government Work Report 2015"first mentioned "Total factor productivity" and clearly pointed out "increasing R&D investment and improving total factor productivity".The government have also issued series of policies and measures conducive to improving total factor productivity level.As the main tool for exploring the source of economic growth and evaluating the quality of economic growth,the importance of total factor productivity to economic growth is obvious.Technology innovation is the fundamental source of economic development,Chinese government tries to change the way of economic growth and proposes a development strategy with innovation as the first driving force for economic growth.Under the guidance of the concept of innovation-driven development,China’s innovation output has increased year by year.According to the National Bureau of Statistics,the number of China invention patent applications accepted has increased to 1.23 million in 2017 from 141,000 in 2007,with an average annual growth rate of 12.8%.In the process of economic transformation and upgrading,the integration of knowledge innovation and technological progress plays a important role,human capital as the carrier of knowledge and innovation,policy makers pay more attention to the way of driving accumulate knowledge of the research and development department,achieving technological progress and enhance the total factors production level.As the country with the largest population in the world,how to exploit and cultivate China’s population advantage after the demographic dividend has weakened even lost its economic contribution,stimulate the potential vitality of technological innovation and improve the China’s total factor productivity have become issues worth studying.This paper selects the relevant statistical data of 30 provinces of China from 2000 to 2017 as sample,and uses the DEA-Malmquist index to calculate total factor productivity level of each region.Based on the research on the impact of technological innovation on total factor productivity,further research when the human capital as the threshold,the impact of technological innovation on the level of total factor productivity under different levels of human capital.The research results show that there is a nonlinear relationship between technological innovation and total factor productivity,when technological innovation level is at a lower level,due to lack of independent innovation power and the insufficiency of innovation quality and economic value,technological innovation has a negative effect on total factor productivity.Only when technological innovation level has accumulated to a certain extent,its positive effect on total factor productivity has revealed.The different levels of human capital have an adjustment effect on the impact of technological innovation on total factor productivity.Before human capital crosses the first threshold and after the second threshold,the impact on total factor productivity is significantly positive,and the impact of innovation on total factor productivity is stronger than after crossing the second threshold.When the human capital level is between two thresholds,the impact of technological innovation on total factor productivity is negative.The results of the estimation after the robustness test still support the above conclusions.Based on the results of the empirical analysis of this paper,some corresponding policy recommendations are proposed.First,the government should strengthen the innovation incentive policy and intellectual property protection system,stimulate the internal motivation of China’s independent innovation,and encourage social entities to carry out stable and continuous innovation activities.Second,establish and improve a sound assessment system for scientific and technological achievements,promote and encourage high-quality innovation activities.Finally,pay more attention to the accumulation of human capital quality,complete the driving mechanism of innovative human capital,and overcomes institutional obstacles in the process of human capital flowing and functioning.