Siphon Or Spillover——An Analysis Of The Regional Innovation Effect Of The Strategy Of "Strengthen Provincial Capital"

After 2010,the strategy of "strengthen provincial capital" has become the provincial development logic chosen by many provinces.What will the impact of this policy orientation which is improving the provincial capital primacy by administrative means on provincial innovation development?The data for the paper are derived from 26 provinces and 287 cities in China from 2010 to 2019.This paper analyzes the impact and mechanism of the development of provincial capital cities on the innovation development of the province and local cities,and conducts robustness test and heterogeneity analysis.Besides,the moderating effect of the highspeed rail is further explored.The empirical results show that:(1)the provincial capital primacy has an inverted U-shaped influence on the innovation development of the province.(2)There are two mechanisms for the influence of the innovation development of provincial capital cities on the innovation development of local cities:spillover effect and siphon effect,where the directions and strengths are different under different provincial capital primacy.In lowprimacy provinces,the innovation development of provincial capital cities play a positive spillover effect through learning mechanism to drive the innovation development of local cities.In high-primacy provinces,the negative siphon effect caused by the lack of innovative elements in local cities inhibits the innovative development of local cities.(3)The influence direction and strength of the innovation development of provincial capital cities on the innovation development of local cities are heterogeneous in geographic distance,economic distance and administrative level of provincial capitals.(4)The opening of high-speed rail between provincial capital cities and local cities can play a positive regulatory effect.With the highspeed rail,it can enhance the positive spillover effect of provincial capital cities in low-primacy provinces,and weaken the negative siphon effect of provincial capital cities in high-primacy provinces.So,that can play a positive regulatory effect on regional innovation and development.Therefore,this paper puts forward that we should formulate the strategy of "strengthen provincial capital" which is suitable for its own situation to pursue the maximization of regional innovation ability,and build an innovation pattern of mutualism between provincial capital cities and local cities.