Research On The Impact Of Inland Pilot Free Trade Zone On Regional Economic Growth

The inland pilot free trade zone has been given two missions since it was first approved in 2017.For the country,effectively serve the in-depth construction of the "Belt and Road" and the in-depth implementation of national development strategies such as the Western Development and the Central China’s Rising,and accelerate the construction of a new economic system featuring balanced coastal and inland areas and all-round opening up.For the regions--fully generate demonstrative and driving effect,siphon effect and radiation effect through institutional innovation.,and actively foster new advantages in inland develop ment,and strive to form a coordinated and sustainable regional economic distribution.Entering the "14th Five-Year Plan"period,the inland pilot free trade zone has become an important hub to promote the formation of domestic and international cycles.In this case,can the inland pilot free trade zone promote regional economic growth?Is there regional heterogeneity?More importantly,through what path?The answers to these questions undoubtedly have extremely important practical significance for the inland pilot free trade zone to better promote the integration of the inland into the new development pattern of "double cycle" and the high-quality development of inland economy,which has certain academic value and policy value.Based on the current analysis of inland pilot free trade zones and regional economic growth,this paper combined with economic growth theory and free trade theory to analyze the impact and mechanism of inland pilot free trade zones on regional economic growth through PSM-DID and HCW method.On the one hand,the fixed-effect model and the moderating effect model are used to empirically explore influence effect and its regional heterogeneity of inland pilot free trade zones on regional economic growth,and the moderating effects of institutional environment and factor endowment are investigated.On the other hand,the intermediary effect model deeply reveals the mechanism of inland pilot free trade zones in influencing regional economic growth by promoting industrial structure optimization,increasing the total foreign trade,expanding foreign investment scale and improving innovation output performance.The results show that:(1)The inland pilot free trade zones significantly promote regional economic growth,but the positive effect on quantitative economic growth is stronger than that of qualitative economic growth,namely,"increasing quantity" is stronger than "improving quality",and this conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests.(2)There are obvious spatial differences in the influence effect of inland pilot free trade zones on regional economic growth,and there is no consistency between quantitative economic growth and qualitative economic growth in terms of dynamic effect and influence effect.Especially on the time trend,the short-term effect of inland pilot free trade zones on quantitative economic growth is promoted,and the long-term effect is different,but the dynamic effect on qualitative economic growth is different.(3)The institutional environment and factor endowment provide institutional guarantee and solid foundation for the effective construction of inland pilot free trade zones,but institutional environment negatively moderates the positive impact of inland pilot free trade zones on regional economic growth,while factor endowment has obvious heterogeneity in its moderating effect,in which quantitative economic growth is negatively moderated,while qualitative economic growth is positively moderated.(4)Although inland pilot free trade zones can accelerate the optimization of industrial structure,but diversely affects regional economic growth through it,which can inhibit quantitative economic growth and promote qualitative economic growth.However,increasing foreign trade is an important path for inland pilot free trade zones to exert economic growth effect,but most of the driving force comes from the expansion of export trade scale,while the expansion of import trade can only positively affect quantitative economic growth.It is worth thinking that inland pilot free trade zones have created a good investment environment for foreign companies and indeed expanded foreign investment scale,but can’t effectively promote regional economic growth through it.In particular,because the inland pilot free trade zones did not promote patent research and accelerate innovation output,the path of boosting regional economic growth by improving innovation output performance is "dysfunctional".Based on the above conclusions,the paper puts forward suggestions from five aspects:strengthening institutional innovation,promoting industrial structure transformation and upgrading,promoting trade facilitation and development,improving FDI utilization efficiency,and optimizing technological innovation environment,aiming at providing policy guidance for inland pilot free trade zones to continuously deepen institutional innovation and improve the quality and efficiency of regional economic growth.