Technology,Gaps,,Resource,Allocation,and,Economic,Growth,of,Large,Late-starting,Countries on and on什么意思
Abstract: In the evolution of economic growth drivers, technology gaps are a key variable that determines the efficiency of resource allocation. Analysis of an optimal resource allocation path based on an extended endogenous growth model reveals that economic growth drivers evolve from productive investment to R&D investment and a shift from imitation to innovation. Empirical analysis based on China’s provincial-level panel data suggests that the effect of productive investment and R&D investment, as well as innovation and imitation, on economic growth and technological progress varies greatly among regions of disparate technology levels. As a late-starting country, China should properly allocate resources between productive investment and R&D investment, and between imitational investment and innovative investment while advancing the transformation of economic growth patterns on a differentiated basis in light of regional technology disparities.
Key words: economic growth, technology gaps, indigenous innovation, late-starting country
JEL Classifications: 031
1. Introduction
Since adopting the strategy of building an “innovation-oriented country” in 2005, China has made great headway in both R&D investment and output and expedited the transition from “investment-driven” to “innovation-driven” economic growth. However, most of China’s technological progress still relies on the acquisition of foreign technologies and productive investment remains the main driver of economic growth (Zhang and Liu, 2007). This reality forces us to further think about the relationship between imitation and innovation as two basic options of technological progress, together with the relationship between productive investment and R&D investment.
Actually, most enterprises in developing countries do not have R&D departments, as they feel pressured to devote already limited resources to productive activities. Indeed, a proper balance has to be struck between R&D investment and productive investment for late-starting countries (Zhang et al., 2006). This raises the issue of the relationship between innovation and imitation.
On the one hand, the positive effect of technology acquisition and imitation has been recognized by the theory of “late starter’s advantage”. For developing countries with limited R&D resources, their gaps of economic development with developed countries can be narrowed by acquisition and imitation of advanced foreign technologies alone (Grossman and Helpman, 1990; Helpman and Hoffmaister, 1997; Keller, 2004).