The International Comparison On The Input And Output Of The Knowledge Capital Under Open Conditions

Since the 1980s, the global economy has entered into an era of industrial structure adjustment, and the pattern of economic development has begun to shift from investment-driven to innovation-driven. In this process, the role of knowledge capital in promoting technological progress and economic growth has enhanced continuously with the rise of knowledge economy and the further development of endogenous growth theory, the relationship between input and output of knowledge capital has become a research hotspot over the past 30 years.The study on the effect of input and output of knowledge capital should include the knowledge-related research of various aspects such as R&D capital, human capital, infrastructure capital and technology capital. But the majority of existing research has only focused on the impact of R&D capital on TFP, and governments also ignore the different aspects of knowledge capital optimized allocation when they pay close attention to increase R&D investment in designing innovative policies. Based on this, with different aspects of knowledge capital as a starting point, this paper analyzes and compare the impact of different aspects of knowledge capital on TFP of the world and different clubs, and also discusses the effect of international spillover of knowledge capital and the absorptive capacity of domestic knowledge capital on TFP.Based on the redefining connotation and classifying constituent elements of knowledge capital, this paper puts the core variables "knowledge capital" into endogenous growth model under open conditions, on the basis of which established a theoretical framework including the international knowledge capital and the absorptive capacity of domestic knowledge capital. The results of theoretical model is that:in an open condition, the technological progress and steady-state growth rate depends on the domestic knowledge capital stock (every aspect input), international knowledge capital (every spillover channel), the absorptive capacity of domestic knowledge capital and technology gap.According to the results of the theoretical model, firstly, this paper constructs an evaluation index system which reflects the development level of knowledge capital, and measures the knowledge capital index and its four aspects index for 130 economies from the year 1981 to 2010. We find that, in the whole period, the global knowledge capital has a low development level, but this low level is only reflected in R&D capital and technology capital, while human capital and infrastructure capital have a high development level.Then, we use cluster analysis to divide the class of knowledge capital club and find that the 130 economies can be divided into three clubs stably on the basis of differences in the development level of four aspects of knowledge capital, which named leaders club, followers club and marginalized club. Among them, the knowledge capital of leaders club has a high development level, and this high level is reflected in the four aspects of knowledge capital; The knowledge capital of followers club has a low development level, but this low level is only reflected in the R&D capital and technology capital, while human capital and infrastructure capital have a high development level; The knowledge capital of marginalized club has a low development level, and this low level is reflected in the four aspects of knowledge capital, but the marginalized club has a domestic comparative advantage in the aspect of human capital and infrastructure capital.In the output aspect of knowledge capital, the paper uses the cross-time and cross-nation income share method to estimate the TFP of the economies and the clubs over the years. It was found that, in the whole period, the global total factor productivity has a low development level which is only exists in followers club and marginalized club, but the TFP of the leaders club has a high development level.After measuring the input and output indicators of the knowledge capital, this paper then empirically analyzes the effect of the knowledge capital on TFP from the perspective of different aspects investment, and test the validity of the theoretical model derived results. The empirical results show that:every aspect of domestic knowledge capital investment all has a significantly positive effect on total factor productivity of the world and different clubs in addition to the impact of R&D capital on marginalized club, but there are differences in promoting effectiveness between the different aspects investment of different clubs. Among them, the R&D capital and technology capital have the maximum positive influence on leaders club, while the human capital has the maximum positive influence on followers club and the infrastructure capital has the maximum positive influence on marginalized club.In terms of the test of foreign knowledge capital spillover, we find that:import channel has a significantly positive effect on total factor productivity of the world and different clubs with the maximum promoting effect in followers club; FDI channel has a significantly negative effect on the host country's TFP, but the negative effect only exists in the followers club and the marginalized club, while the leaders club has the maximum positive influence on its TFP. Closing the technology gap between following economy and leading economy is conducive to improve technology level of the world and the clubs, while the marginalized club has the maximum positive influence on its TFP.In terms of the test of the absorptive capacity of domestic knowledge capital, we find that:import channel has a direct spillover effect but no indirect spillover effect on the world and the clubs; FDI channel has an indirect spillover effect but no direct spillover effect on the world and followers club, and has a direct spillover effect but no indirect spillover effect on the marginalized club, and not only has a direct spillover effect but also has an indirect spillover on the leaders club. Technology gap channel not only has a direct spillover effect but also has an indirect spillover on the world as a whole and every club.Finally, this paper proposes some policy implications for China from the point of view of increasing the R&D capital investment, paying attention to the human capital accumulation, taking into account the role of infrastructure capital, taking advantage of technology capital and make full use of the international knowledge capital spillover effect.