| With the deepening of economic globalization,a large number of international immigrants and frequent cross-border movement of talents have become one of the most important phenomena of today's world economic development.According to UNDESA statistics,the number of international migrants increased from 84.46 million in the 1970 s to 257 million in2017.However,the main destination countries for international migration are all high-income countries.In 2017,the number of immigrants from developed economies accounted for 63.8%of the total number of international migrants,with an absolute number of 164 million people.Among them,skilled immigration is one of the most important forms of international immigration and the most important immigrant group in the host country;this type of immigration usually applies for immigration based on the applicant's education,professional background,and language ability.Taking Australia as an example,the government issued a total number of 162,400 permanent resident places in the fiscal year 2017-2018,110,900 of which were skilled immigrants,and skilled immigrants accounted for nearly 70% of the total.It can be seen from this that high-quality human capital already become one of the most important elements of a country's economic development and technological progress,which is becoming a valuable resource for competition among countries.Technological progress and innovation are the driving forces and sources of a country's sustainable economic development.Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up,the rapid development of China's economy has relied heavily on the low-cost advantages of labor and resources.As China's economy enters the "new normal" development stage,accelerating the transition from low-cost advantage to technological innovation advantage is an important driving force for sustainable development of China's economy.In 2012,the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly proposed an innovation-driven development strategy.In May 2016,the Central Committee of the People's Republic of China and the State Council further issued the "National Innovation-driven Development Strategy Program".The importance of technological innovation is self-evident.Regarding technological progress and the mechanism of economic growth,scholars have conducted extensive and in-depth discussions,including those involving the input of traditional elements such as physical capital,and attention to high-quality elements such as High-tech talents and R&D.Technological progress and innovation depend more on human initiative,so talent is one of the most critical elements.Solow pointed out that technological progress refers to any form of change in the production function.Technological progress mainly includes technological innovation and technological efficiency.Changes in economic organizations,the improvement of the human capital stock of labor,and various factors that promote changes in the production function can be incorporating "technical changes" while innovation is more related to the invention of new technologies and methods.On the one hand,for developing countries and regions with relatively low levels of technology,the technological spillovers from developed countries are one of the important ways to promote domestic technological progress;on the other hand,innovation is the core driving force of technological progress,and to a large extent also depends on the level of innovation in the country.Existing research shows that the channels of international knowledge spillover mainly include human capital flow,foreign direct investment,outward foreign direct investment,international trade,patent citation,etc.At the same time,studies on immigration and innovation have found that immigrants can promote innovation in host countries by generating more cultural diversity.This study firstly analyzes and explains the four mechanisms of international talent inflow promoting China's technological progress from the theoretical level,i.e.international talent inflow and human capital accumulation,international talent inflow and foreign direct investment,international talent inflow and outward foreign direct investment,and international talent inflow and Multicultural innovation.Then,based on the perspective of studying abroad,this study analyzes the current situation of China's international talent inflow and examines the promotion effect of international talent inflow on China's human capital accumulation,foreign direct investment,and outward foreign direct investment in turn.Finally,this study adopts an empirical analysis in-depth discussion of the impact of international talent inflow on China's total factor productivity and urban innovation capacity.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:About the mechanism testing,the study finds that,(1)The increase in the scale of international talent inflows can significantly promote the accumulation of human capital in the region,but there is a certain regional difference in this promotion effect.It is not significant in the eastern region,but this promotion effect is significant in the central region except for the international students who get government scholarships.In the western region,this promotion effect comes mainly from international degree students.(2)International talent inflows can significantly promote regional foreign direct investment.Moreover,it can indirectly promote the level of FDI by reducing the negative impact of the lack of corporate operating environment and the low level of geographic agglomeration;in addition,the impact of international talent inflow on the location distribution of FDI is different between economic regions,that is,there is no significant promotion effect on the Yangtze River Delta region,but the impact on the Bohai Rim region and the western region is more significant.(3)International Talent inflow can effectively promote China's outward foreign direct investment,but this promotion effect will change with the scale of international talent inflow and the geographical distance of the host country;when the scale of talent inflow is large,the investment risk avoidance effect through the network effect will become more significant,so the promotion effect will be more significant;when the geographical distance is closer,the cultural barrier reduction effect of talent exchange will be more significant,so the promotion of OFDI is more effective;otherwise the promotion mechanism of international talent inflow to OFDI may fail.About the impact of international talent inflow on China's total factor productivity and urban innovation capability,the study finds that,(1)the scale of international talent inflow could significantly increase the total factor productivity.This effect is mainly reflected in the total factor productivity change index and technological progress change index but has no significant effect on the technical efficiency change index.Further research finds that this promotion effect more comes from international non-degree students and self-funded international student talents.Furthermore,constructing the threshold regression model by selecting foreign direct investment and marketization index as threshold variables,it finds that the impact of foreign direct investment on total factor productivity showed a single threshold,and the effect of marketization on total factor productivity showed a double threshold feature.(2)International talent inflows can promote the innovation capacity of cities significantly,but there are different impacts on cities of different sizes.The promotion effect is significant on supercities,while no significant impact on megacities and large cities.Meanwhile,this promotion effect is also different in different urban agglomerations,that is,the promotion effect is significant in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration,Chengdu-Chongqing City Group,and Central Plains Urban Agglomeration,while no significant impact in Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations,Triangle of Central China,and Guanzhong plain city group.In addition,by using the spatial econometric model analysis,this study finds that there is an endogenous interaction between the innovation capabilities of cities.The city's innovation index is affected by the innovation index of its neighboring cities,and the scale of international talent inflow can significantly promote the innovation ability of the city,but it has a negative impact on the neighboring cities.Finally,the threshold regression model is constructed by selecting the higher education level,the urban geographic area,the infrastructure level,and the urban sprawl index as threshold variables.The threshold effect test analysis shows that there is indeed a significant threshold effect on the impact of international talent inflow on urban innovation capability,and they fit under the threshold model is better than linear estimation.Finally,this study is based on the overall situation of international talent inflow in China,while drawing on the valuable experience of major developed countries in attracting international talents and promoting technological progress.Combining the "Stones of Other Mountains" with the current status of international talent inflows in China,this study proposes practical policy recommendations for attracting international talents at the central government level,local government level,and the university level. |
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