Does factor endowment allocation improve technological innovation performance? An empirical study on the Yangtze River Delta region.

Abstract

Technological innovation is an important driving force for the regional economy's high-quality development, and determining ways to improve the condition and allocation efficiency of factor endowment is key to improving the performance of regional technological innovation. Considering the dynamic conditions of technological progress, we empirically study the endowment conditions and allocation efficiency of technological innovation factors input in the Yangtze River Delta region by using the translog production function to explore the interactive mechanism of innovation factors to technological innovation performance during 2000-2017. The results show the following: First, the three innovation factors-innovative human capital investment, research and development (R&D) fund investment, and fixed asset investment-contributed positively to technological innovation performance output in the Yangtze River Delta region, but there is an obvious gap between Anhui Province and the Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, and Shanghai Municipality. Among the three factors, the contribution rate of R&D fund investment is relatively high, and technological innovation is dependent on R&D fund investment. Second, the biased technological progress of technological innovation factors in the Yangtze River Delta region shows a growth trend, and allocation efficiency of all three innovation factors improved continuously. The provinces' order from high to low allocation efficiency is Jiangsu Province, Shanghai Municipality, Zhejiang Province, and Anhui Province; Zhejiang Province showed the fastest improvement. Finally, the alternative elasticity coefficient of the three innovation factors in Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, and Shanghai Municipality is greater than zero. The proportion structure of the input of technological innovation factors matches the regional technological progress. Technological innovation is in the effective economic range, but the fixed asset investment factors are relatively abundant, and there is room for improvement in the factor configuration structure. In Anhui Province, the alternative elasticity of innovative human capital investment and innovation R&D fund investment during 2000-2012 is less than zero, and the factor configuration structure keeps Anhui Province's technological innovation output in the uneconomic range, which is an internal factor that hinders the output of technological innovation performance in this province. They are not inconsistent that input and contribution rate of the innovation factors in the Yangtze River Delta region. The result of this study shows that technological innovation performance not only depends on the input of innovation factors, but also be affected by the allocation efficiency of innovation factors. In order to promote the economy's high-quality development in the Yangtze River Delta region, the government need not only pay attention to the input of innovation factors, but also pay more attention to improve the allocation efficiency of innovation factors.