文章摘要
张杰,白铠瑞,毕钰.互联网基础设施、创新驱动与中国区域不平衡[J].数量经济技术经济研究,2023,(1):46-65
互联网基础设施、创新驱动与中国区域不平衡
Internet Infrastructure Construction, Innovation Drivers, and Regional Imbalance in China: Evidence from Macro and Micro Data
  
DOI:
中文关键词: 互联网基础设施建设  中国区域不平衡  创新驱动  集聚效应
英文关键词: Internet Infrastructure Construction  Regional Imbalance in China  Innovation-driven  Agglomeration Effect
基金项目:本文获得国家社会科学基金重大项目“加快发展现代产业体系”(21ZDA022)的资助。感谢匿名审稿专家的宝贵意见,文责自负。
作者单位
张杰 中国人民大学中国经济改革与发展研究院 
白铠瑞 中国人民大学经济学院 
毕钰 首都经济贸易大学经济学院 
中文摘要:
      实证检验中国互联网基础设施建设对创新活动影响效应的区域差异及形成机理是回答互联网能否有效兼容创新驱动战略和区域平衡发展这一问题的关键。本文基于城市和微观企业创新活动的证据链,实证发现中国大规模实施的互联网基础设施建设并不能有效提升欠发达地区的创新水平,还进一步可能扩大了中国区域发展不平衡格局。互联网基础设施建设虽然在总体上对中国地级城市层面创新水平和微观企业创新投入产生了显著的促进作用,但激励效应仅限于东部区域、南方板块、省会和人均GDP水平大于均值城市等各种维度划分的发达地区,而在与之相对应的欠发达地区却呈现抑制效应。基于要素流动分析框架,进一步检验表明,互联网基础设施建设主要激励了要素资源向发达地区流动的“集聚效应”,进而影响中国区域不平衡格局,同时也存在着集聚过程中的“拥挤效应”,然而资源向欠发达地区回流的“分散效应”则很有限。本文结论有助于理解中国推行的互联网基础设施建设的复杂性激励效应,对响应习近平总书记在党的二十大提出的加快建设网络强国、数字中国的政策号召,探索互联网推动构建创新驱动战略与经济高质量增长的有效兼容模式具有重要意义。
英文摘要:
      The Chinese government has long realized that installing Internet infrastructure construction in a region plays a significant role in attracting high-end industries and talent agglomeration. This can cultivate the endogenous innovation of the country and boost long-term potential growth. Therefore, the Chinese government has actively implemented and advanced several important digital-economy-oriented development strategies, such as “3G Construction”, “Broadband China”, and “Internet Plus”.While accelerating Internet infrastructure construction development in developed eastern regions, the government is also intentionally prioritizing the installation and popularization of Internet infrastructure construction in less developed regions, such as the central and western regions. These activities attempt to fill an “information gap”, which is an obstacle for regional economic and industrial development. Moreover, it plays an important role in driving economic growth in underdeveloped regions, alleviating the development imbalance between regions, and eliminating the development gap between urban and rural areas. There remains a question as to whether the large-scale installation of Internet infrastructure construction across the country can effectively balance innovation-driven strategies. This is important to investigate, as these strategies may ultimately determine growth over the next decade. Empirically testing regional differences with respect to the impact of China's Internet infrastructure construction on innovation activities can help determine the mechanisms that shape the differences, and inform approaches for more balanced regional development, which relates also to people's well-being. Based on a range of evidence about innovation activities from the urban to micro-enterprise level, and by applying the Differences-in-Differences (DID) and instrumental variable (IV) identification strategies, this paper concludes that China's large-scale Internet infrastructure construction does not effectively improve the innovation level of underdeveloped areas. Moreover, such construction may expand the unbalanced pattern of regional development in China. Internet infrastructure construction plays a generally significant role in promoting the level of innovation for a city-level administrative area or for an individual enterprise. However, this incentive effect is limited to developed regions, such as eastern or southern China, provincial capitals, and cities with a higher than average per capita GDP. In contrast, Internet infrastructure construction has a somewhat inhibitive effect in underdeveloped regions. Using an element-flow analysis framework, further tests on other factors in different regions, such as enterprise innovation outsourcing and human capital, show that Internet infrastructure construction mainly stimulates the “agglomeration effect”, defined by the flow of elements and resources to developed regions. This, in turn, affects China's regional imbalance pattern. At the same time, there is also a “crowding effect” in the agglomeration process.However, the “dispersion effect” to underdeveloped areas is limited. This paper's conclusions help describe the complex incentive effect involved in China's Internet infrastructure construction. This paper makes two key contributions to the field. First, it generates unique empirical evidence in a Chinese context. At a country level, the installation of Internet infrastructure construction has significantly encouraged innovation activities by cities and enterprises, supporting the theoretical hypothesis that installing Internet infrastructure construction effectively drives innovation in China's economy. However, the results of a regional heterogeneity test at both macro and micro levels show that Internet infrastructure construction only significantly stimulates innovation activities in developed regions, and may somewhat inhibit innovation activities in less developed regions. This highlights the complex incentive effects of the Internet infrastructure construction. Second, important micro-level evidence is provided to explore the associated mechanism. Many researchers have faced difficulties in testing the “agglomeration effect” and “crowding effect”. This paper provides evidence of the heterogeneous incentive effects of Internet infrastructure construction on firms with different levels of innovation outsourcing and different levels of human capital.
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