The Role Of Human Capital In The Import Related R & D Spillovers

Large numbers of theoretical and empirical researches have already proved that technological knowledge originating in a country can cross the national boundary and offer contribution to other countries'technological progress or productivity growth, This is often viewed as an important source of economic growth for developing countries. According to this point of view, import trade has already been viewed as one of the primary channels of technology spillovers. But because that those knowledge and technology embedded or embodied in traded goods and services are always relative complicated, the R&D spillovers in the import trade isn't a passive and automatic process. the magnitude of this spillovers effect must still be determined by absorptive capability measured by the human capital and other many factors. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze the role of human capital in the trade related R&D spillovers.In the part of theoretical research, this paper construct a endogenous growth model in the frame of north-south trade to depict and analyze mechanism of north-south technology spillovers and the role of human capital in this process. The result of model indicate that the human capital in the south has direct effect to its economic growth——along with the level of human capital increases, the more proportion of human capital shall be collocated in R&D department, this can increase the growth rate in steady state in the south. Except this, the human capital also has indirect effect——along with the level of human capital increases, the absorptive capability of the south shall be enhanced accordingly, this can increase growth rate in the south indirectly. The model also find that there is the threshold effect of human capital existing in the trigger mechanism of this indirect growth effect.In the following empirical research, different from the research route adopted by most literatures, this paper utilizes a inter-provincial panel sample over the period 1997-2007 to investigate the role of human capital in the trade related R&D spillovers in a nonlinear threshold regression model other than in a linear model. The results suggest that the human capital variable measured by the average total years of schooling takes on positive threshold effect in the import related R&D spillovers, Thus R&D spillovers are stronger assuredly in regions with higher levels of absorptive capacity measured by human capital. We also take respectively the average years of higher schooling, the average years of secondary schooling and the average years of primary schooling as alternative indicators of absorptive capacity in our model, the results indicate that the average years of higher schooling and the average years of secondary schooling takes on positive threshold effect in the import related R&D spillovers, the higher the value of these two types of human capital indexes, the more learning effect a region can acquire from the positive externality of the technology spillovers, thus absorptive capacity measured by them helps a region take advantage of knowledge and technology produced in advanced countries; but the average years of primary schooling takes on negative threshold effect, the higher the level of the human capital measured by the primary education, the less learning effect a region can acquire from the positive externality of the technology spillovers, this sort of human capital has contrary restrictive function to the import related R&D spillovers. Therefore, our results furthermore suggest that the composition of human capital is also important except for its level in import related R&D spillovers. This is also reflected on this aspect that the potential of the various compositions of human capital for the import related R&D spillovers is different. Among this, the average years of higher schooling is the largest, the average total years of schooling is the second, the average years of secondary schooling is the smallest, and the potential of the average years of primary schooling is contrary.Considering the possibility that the import related foreign technological knowledge acquired by a province may also transfer to its adjacent regions, This paper put forward a new term named'the second spillovers of the import related R&D', develop a method to measure this second spillovers, and then investigate the role of the human capital in this sort of second spillovers. Our extend research find that the threshold role of every human capital variable in the inter-provincial second spillovers of the import related R&D is similar to the one it play in the import related R&D spillovers coming from foreign countries directly. But as regards the potential for the second spillovers of the import related R&D, then the average years of higher schooling is not the largest again. This indicates that the level of the human capital for the second spillovers of the import related R&D between various regions in our country is seemly lower than the one for the direct spillovers of the import related R&D from foreign countries to China.Finally, we can't fail to weight between the linear models and nonlinear ones when we investigate the role of human capital in the import related R&D spillovers. Our results suggest very clearly that the effect that the human capital imposes on the import related R&D spillovers is not linear, thus it is more proper to adopt the linear models other than the nonlinear ones to investigate the role of human capital in the trade related R&D spillovers. We need pay attention to this problem when we design model to investigate the role of human capital in the import related R&D spillovers.