Study On The Economic Growth Effect Of China’s Pilot Free Trade Zone

The pilot free trade zone is an important strategic measure for China to deepen economic system reform and expand opening to the outside world.Since the establishment of Shanghai pilot free trade zone in 2013,the construction of China’s free trade zone has been expanded six times.The establishment and construction of the free trade zone will help to explore the economic system reform with institutional innovation as the core,carry out high-quality opening to the outside world,unblock the domestic unified market,and promote economic growth.Therefore,it is of great significance to study the economic growth effect of free trade zone,especially to clarify its mechanism.In order to explore the economic growth effect of pilot free trade zones and its transmission mechanism,this paper does the following work.Firstly,this paper summarizes relevant studies and finds that free trade zones have a positive impact on the quantity of economic growth,but there are few studies on the quality of economic growth.Secondly,this paper studies the classical trade theory,free trade area,new institutional economic theory and unbalanced growth theory,which provides theoretical support for this research.Thirdly,with the support of theoretical basis,this paper sorts out the mechanism of free trade zone affecting economic growth.Fourthly,this paper introduces the development status of the first three batches of free trade zones,and summarizes the regional distribution,functional positioning and system construction results of the free trade zones.Fifthly,based on the above theoretical and practical basis,this paper uses the data envelopment analysis method to calculate the total factor productivity of each province,and innovatively uses it to represent the economic growth effect of free trade zones,and uses the difference in difference model to empirically test the economic growth effect of free trade zones.In addition,this paper creatively and quantitative measure of free trade zone with the marketization level of system innovation effect,and segment the product market development level and factor market development level two indexes,studied the conduction function of institutional innovation in the free trade area economic growth effect,and according to the free trade zone to set up batches and heterogeneity of different location of the inspection.Finally,the paper makes an extensive research by constructing the index system of high-quality economic development.The results show that:(1)the establishment of free trade zone has a significant role in promoting economic growth,and the growth effect is positively correlated with the establishment time of free trade zone.The earlier the establishment time is,the stronger the economic growth effect is;(2)The establishment of a free trade zone can stimulate institutional innovation,which is mainly reflected in the improvement of the development level of product market and factor market,and thus promote economic growth;(3)The coastal free trade zone plays a more significant role in promoting economic growth.Its institutional innovation effect is mainly reflected in improving the development level of product market,while the institutional innovation effect of inland free trade zone is mainly reflected in improving the development level of factor market.(4)The establishment of the free trade zone can meet the requirements for the quality of economic development under the new development concept and help the economy move towards high-quality development.In addition,a series of methods such as counter-factual test and placebo test are used to verify the robustness of the regression results.Based on the above research results,this paper puts forward the following policy suggestions:(1)build a free trade zone with high standards and strengthen the effect of institutional innovation.(2)Differentiated construction of free trade zones gives free trade zone reform autonomy.(3)The construction of the free trade zone will give prominence to improving the development level of the product market and factor market,and promote the transformation from the opening of the product market to the opening of the factor market.