IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i12p4401-d185306.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Government Competition on Regional R&D Efficiency: Does Legal Environment Matter in China’s Innovation System?

Author

Listed:
  • Baocheng He

    (School of Economics and Management, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China
    School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China)

  • Jiawei Wang

    (School of Economics and Management, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China)

  • Jiaoyang Wang

    (School of Economics and Management, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China)

  • Kun Wang

    (School of Management, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK)

Abstract

Local governments are encouraged to compete in R&D investments and activities in China’s innovation system. We aim to understand the influence of government competition on regional R&D efficiency. We are also interested in examining how the attributes of legal environment act as a moderating variable for the relationship between government competition and R&D efficiency. We developed Tobit spatial models with spatial panel data of 30 provinces of China in 2008–2016. The results show that: (1) There exists spatial dependence of R&D efficiency, and the regions with high efficiency have “spillover effect” on the surrounding areas. (2) Government competition has a significant promoting effect on R&D efficiency and/or R&D efficiency spillover. Specifically, government competition has both R&D efficiency promotion and R&D efficiency “spillover” promotion in Eastern China, only R&D efficiency positive spillover promotion in Middle-area and R&D efficiency promotion but negative spillover in Western China. (3) The impact of government competition on efficiency is affected by the legal environment, and the promotion effect of government competition only exists in good legal environment. The results of this study reveal an important way to improve R&D efficiency by establishing a new R&D competition mechanism for local government which is oriented by efficiency and ruled by the legal environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Baocheng He & Jiawei Wang & Jiaoyang Wang & Kun Wang, 2018. "The Impact of Government Competition on Regional R&D Efficiency: Does Legal Environment Matter in China’s Innovation System?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4401-:d:185306
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4401/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4401/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wildasin, David E., 2003. "Fiscal competition in space and time," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(11), pages 2571-2588, October.
    2. Wang, Eric C. & Huang, Weichiao, 2007. "Relative efficiency of R&D activities: A cross-country study accounting for environmental factors in the DEA approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 260-273, March.
    3. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(5), pages 416-416.
    4. Carlin Wendy & Schaffer Mark & Seabright Paul, 2004. "A Minimum of Rivalry: Evidence from Transition Economies on the Importance of Competition for Innovation and Growth," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-43, September.
    5. Revelli, Federico, 2006. "Performance rating and yardstick competition in social service provision," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 459-475, February.
    6. Jung Ho Park & Kwangsoo Shin, 2018. "Efficiency of Government-Sponsored R&D Projects: A Metafrontier DEA Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, July.
    7. Tom Broekel, 2015. "Do Cooperative Research and Development (R&D) Subsidies Stimulate Regional Innovation Efficiency? Evidence from Germany," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(7), pages 1087-1110, July.
    8. Seema Sharma & V. J. Thomas, 2008. "Inter-country R&D efficiency analysis: An application of data envelopment analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 76(3), pages 483-501, September.
    9. Firth, Michael & Lin, Chen & Liu, Ping & Wong, Sonia M.L., 2009. "Inside the black box: Bank credit allocation in China's private sector," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1144-1155, June.
    10. Graziella Bonanno, 2016. "ICT and R&D as inputs or efficiency determinants? Analysing Italian manufacturing firms (2007–2009)," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 6(3), pages 383-404, December.
    11. Shiferaw Gurmu & Fidel Pérez-Sebastián, 2008. "Patents, R&D and lag effects: evidence from flexible methods for count panel data on manufacturing firms," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 507-526, November.
    12. Lambert, Dayton M. & Brown, Jason P. & Florax, Raymond J.G.M., 2010. "A two-step estimator for a spatial lag model of counts: Theory, small sample performance and an application," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 241-252, July.
    13. Hashimoto, Akihiro & Haneda, Shoko, 2008. "Measuring the change in R&D efficiency of the Japanese pharmaceutical industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 1829-1836, December.
    14. Rainald Borck & Marco Caliendo & Viktor Steiner, 2007. "Fiscal Competition and the Composition of Public Spending: Theory and Evidence," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 63(2), pages 264-277, June.
    15. A. Varga, 2006. "Spatial Knowledge Spillovers and University Research: Evidence from Austria," Springer Books, in: Innovation, Networks, and Knowledge Spillovers, chapter 10, pages 211-232, Springer.
    16. Caldeira, Emilie, 2012. "Yardstick competition in a federation: Theory and evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 878-897.
    17. Hongbin Li & Li-An Zhou, 2003. "Political Turnover and Economic Performance: The Disciplinary Role of Personnel Control in China," Discussion Papers 00002, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Economics.
    18. Zhang, Tao & Zou, Heng-fu, 1998. "Fiscal decentralization, public spending, and economic growth in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 221-240, February.
    19. Lu, Zhengfei & Zhu, Jigao & Zhang, Weining, 2012. "Bank discrimination, holding bank ownership, and economic consequences: Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 341-354.
    20. Lori L. Taylor, 2000. "The evidence on government competition," Economic and Financial Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, issue Q2, pages 2-10.
    21. Berchicci, Luca, 2013. "Towards an open R&D system: Internal R&D investment, external knowledge acquisition and innovative performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 117-127.
    22. Philip Kostov, 2010. "Model Boosting for Spatial Weighting Matrix Selection in Spatial Lag Models," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 37(3), pages 533-549, June.
    23. Case, Anne C. & Rosen, Harvey S. & Hines, James Jr., 1993. "Budget spillovers and fiscal policy interdependence : Evidence from the states," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 285-307, October.
    24. Feng Wei & Yu Kong, 2014. "Government Governance, Legal Environment and Sustainable Economic Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-16, April.
    25. YAN Chengliang & GONG Liutang, 2009. "Government expenditure, taxation and long-run growth," Frontiers of Economics in China-Selected Publications from Chinese Universities, Higher Education Press, vol. 4(4), pages 505-525, December.
    26. Ungkyu Han & Mette Asmild & Martin Kunc, 2016. "Regional R&D Efficiency in Korea from Static and Dynamic Perspectives," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(7), pages 1170-1184, July.
    27. Weingast, Barry R., 2009. "Second generation fiscal federalism: The implications of fiscal incentives," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 279-293, May.
    28. Pedro V. Amaral & Luc Anselin, 2014. "Finite sample properties of Moran's I test for spatial autocorrelation in tobit models," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(4), pages 773-781, November.
    29. Kaihua Chen & Jiancheng Guan, 2012. "Measuring the Efficiency of China's Regional Innovation Systems: Application of Network Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 355-377, April.
    30. Song, Malin & Wang, Shuhong & Sun, Jing, 2018. "Environmental regulations, staff quality, green technology, R&D efficiency, and profit in manufacturing," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 1-14.
    31. Baicker, Katherine, 2005. "The spillover effects of state spending," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 529-544, February.
    32. Morakinyo Adetutu & Anthony Glass & Karligash Kenjegalieva & Robin Sickles, 2015. "The effects of efficiency and TFP growth on pollution in Europe: a multistage spatial analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 307-326, June.
    33. Jan K. Brueckner, 2003. "Strategic Interaction Among Governments: An Overview of Empirical Studies," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 26(2), pages 175-188, April.
    34. Michael Fritsch & Viktor Slavtchev, 2011. "Determinants of the Efficiency of Regional Innovation Systems," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(7), pages 905-918.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Bofei & Zhu, Shengjun, 2022. "Public funds in high-tech industries: A blessing or a curse," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Kai Xu & Lawrence Loh & Qiang Chen, 2020. "Sustainable Innovation Governance: An Analysis of Regional Innovation with a Super Efficiency Slack-Based Measure Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-19, April.
    3. Ruiqian Li & Ramakrishnan Ramanathan, 2020. "Can environmental investments benefit environmental performance? The moderating roles of institutional environment and foreign direct investment," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3385-3398, December.
    4. Pawel Dobrzanski, 2018. "Innovation expenditures efficiency in Central and Eastern European Countries," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 36(2), pages 827-859.
    5. Huachao Yang & Ting Gan & Wei Liang & Xianchun Liao, 2022. "Can policies aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions help mitigate haze pollution? An empirical analysis of the emissions trading system," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 1959-1980, February.
    6. Qi Jun & Hasan Dinçer & Serhat Yüksel, 2021. "Stochastic hybrid decision‐making based on interval type 2 fuzzy sets for measuring the innovation capacities of financial institutions," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 573-593, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luis Ayala & Ana Herrero & Jorge Martinez‐Vazquez, 2021. "Welfare benefits in highly decentralized fiscal systems: Evidence on interregional mimicking," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(5), pages 1178-1208, October.
    2. Yu, Jihai & Zhou, Li-An & Zhu, Guozhong, 2016. "Strategic interaction in political competition: Evidence from spatial effects across Chinese cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 23-37.
    3. Shun-ichiro Bessho & Kimiko Terai, 2011. "Competition for private capital and central grants: the case of Japanese industrial parks," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 135-154, June.
    4. Kai Xu & Bart Bossink & Qiang Chen, 2019. "Efficiency Evaluation of Regional Sustainable Innovation in China: A Slack-Based Measure (SBM) Model with Undesirable Outputs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-21, December.
    5. Masayoshi Hayashi & Wataru Yamamoto, 2017. "Information sharing, neighborhood demarcation, and yardstick competition: an empirical analysis of intergovernmental expenditure interaction in Japan," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(1), pages 134-163, February.
    6. Min, Sujin & Kim, Juseong & Sawng, Yeong-Wha, 2020. "The effect of innovation network size and public R&D investment on regional innovation efficiency," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    7. Sungmin Park, 2015. "The R&D logic model: Does it really work? An empirical verification using successive binary logistic regression models," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(3), pages 1399-1439, December.
    8. Francisco J. Delgado & Santiago Lago-Peñas & Matías Mayor, 2015. "On The Determinants Of Local Tax Rates: New Evidence From Spain," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 33(2), pages 351-368, April.
    9. Zhonghua Huang & Xuejun Du, 2017. "Strategic interaction in local governments’ industrial land supply: Evidence from China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(6), pages 1328-1346, May.
    10. Geys, Benny, 2006. "Looking across borders: A test of spatial policy interdependence using local government efficiency ratings," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 443-462, November.
    11. Maria Elkhdari (a), Samira Oukarfi (b), Samir Zine El Alaoui (b) and Youness Sahibi (c), 2021. "Are Strategic Interactions between Moroccan Local Governments Geographical or Political?," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 46(1), pages 33-52, March.
    12. Fernando A. López & Pedro J. Martínez-Ortiz & Juan-Gabriel Cegarra-Navarro, 2017. "Spatial spillovers in public expenditure on a municipal level in Spain," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 58(1), pages 39-65, January.
    13. Jin, Haizhen, 2023. "Effects of decentralization on firm performance: Evidence from Chinese county-level quasi-experiments," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    14. Baskaran, Thushyanthan, 2012. "Soft budget constraints and strategic interactions in subnational borrowing: Evidence from the German States, 1975–2005," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 114-127.
    15. Nakazawa, Katsuyoshi & Matsuoka, Hirokazu, 2016. "Change in Strategic Interaction after Introducing Policy," MPRA Paper 73512, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Mariana Lopes da Fonseca, 2017. "Tax Mimicking in Local Business Taxation: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Portugal," CESifo Working Paper Series 6647, CESifo.
    17. Frank M. Fossen & Lukas Mergele & Nicolas Pardo, 2017. "Fueling fiscal interactions: commodity price shocks and local government spending in Colombia," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(4), pages 616-651, August.
    18. Yihua Yu & Jing Wang & Xi Tian, 2016. "Identifying the Flypaper Effect in the Presence of Spatial Dependence: Evidence from Education in China's Counties," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 93-110, March.
    19. Lee, Hyoungsuk & Choi, Yongrok & Seo, Hyungjun, 2020. "Comparative analysis of the R&D investment performance of Korean local governments," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    20. Ferraresi, Massimiliano, 2023. "JUE Insight: Immigrants, social transfers for education, and spatial interactions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4401-:d:185306. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.