| At present,China has embarked on a new journey to fully build a modern socialist country and entered a development stage which is full of unprecedented chances and challenges.Thus,the new development vision should be implemented to seize new opportunities and meet new challenges.Innovation,as one of the novel development concepts,is an important starting point for industrial optimization and upgrading,a key break-through for supply constraints,a strong guarantee for strengthening the foundation of the real economy,and an effective driving force for the steady and long-term growth of the Chinese economy.It can be said that upgrading the level of innovation to promote high-quality economic development has become the consensus of the whole society.In recent years,China has attached great importance to the investment of innovation resources.In 2020,the total of R&D investment ranks second in the world and the full-time equivalent of R&D personnel is first.However,the innovation index ranks the 14 th in the world,indicating that there is still relatively huge room for improving the innovation efficiency of China.In addition,despite the strong regressive pressures faced the global economy today,multiple countries continue to hence the investment in science and innovation,demonstrating that they regard the innovation as an indispensable force for national development.Therefore,the improvement of innovation efficiency is closely related to two essential points:(1)the efficient utilization of Chinese innovation resources;(2)the ownership of commanding heights of global scientific and technological innovation.Overall,the improvement of innovation efficiency has vital practical meaning.Producer services separated from the manufacturing industry have a natural connection with the manufacturing industry and are also characterized by high knowledge and technology intensity.The experience of developed countries suggests that the integrated development of manufacturing and producer services is an inevitable trend.Meanwhile,the role of industrial agglomeration in innovation has been widely recognized by academia and decision makers;it is worth mentioned that the externality advantage generated by cross-industry co-agglomeration is an important source of innovation efficiency improvement.Manufacturing is the backbone for improving the quality and efficiency of economic;producer services are the booster of manufacturing upgrading.These two industries naturally become the key participants of co-agglomeration.In recent years,Chinese government has been layout a lot of space platforms,such as economic and technological development zone,high-tech industry development zone,national innovation demonstration zone,and innovational industrial cluster.The objective is to attract the co-agglomeration of manufacturing and producer services,thereby promoting intelligence concentration,agglomeration of innovation factors and also improving innovative efficiency.Then,does co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing improve the innovation efficiency? In this paper,we leverage the panel data of industry and region to illustrate this above question.Concretely,multiple measurement methods are utilized to test the effect of producer services and manufacturing on the innovation efficiency from multiple views.The main research contents of this paper are described as follows.We firstly explain how the co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing industry affects the innovation efficiency.Secondly,the industrial co-agglomeration index and innovation efficiency were measured from the two levels of industry and region and then we analyze these two indexes statistically.Thirdly,empirical analysis is performed on the impact of industrial co-agglomeration on innovation efficiency;specifically,panel data at the industry level and regional level are utilized to investigate the effect and heterogeneity of industrial co-agglomeration on the innovation efficiency.Finally,we propose policy implications based on the main research conclusions of this paper.Firstly,we explain how the co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing industry affects the innovation efficiency by using theoretical analysis.Producer services are derived from manufacturing industry and have a strong industrial relationship with manufacturing industry.The relationship between the two industries is mutual dependence,collaborative development and co-creation of value.Under the effect of industrial association,these two industries will tend to co-cluster geographically,thereby obtaining agglomeration externalities.Concretely,co-agglomeration can bring five obvious advantages,i.e.,proximity of geographical distance,proximity of social relations,proximity of technology,small business agglomeration,and highly specialized.Based on these advantages,co-agglomeration can produce innovation interaction effect,reduce the transaction cost effect,knowledge spillover effect and self reinforcement effect,so as to exert a great positive effect on promoting the efficiency of innovation.Secondly,based on the data of China’s manufacturing industry and provincial level,we describe the characteristic facts of co-agglomeration and innovation efficiency.In terms of the co-agglomeration index at industry level,the co-agglomeration index of most manufacturing industries and producer services has a positive change during the statistical period.The degree of co-agglomeration of various manufacturing industries and producer services is different;the manufacturing industries with high co-agglomeration index are manufacture of articles for culture,education,arts and crafts,sport and entertainment activities,manufacture of computers,communication and other electronic equipment;low co-agglomeration index corresponds to manufacture of tobacco,smelting and pressing of non-ferrous metals.In terms of innovation efficiency at the industry level,the overall trend of innovation efficiency in China’s manufacturing industry is on the rise during the statistical period,but the intermediate process is also "tortuous".The innovation efficiency of each manufacturing industry is different;industries with high innovation efficiency include manufacture of computers,communication and other electronic equipment,manufacture of automobiles,manufacture of electrical machinery and apparatus,and other technology-intensive industries;innovation efficiency is low in repair service of metal products,machinery and equipment,other manufacture,processing of timber,manufacture of wood,bamboo,rattan,palm and straw products.In terms of the co-agglomeration index at regional level,the co-agglomeration index of all provinces shows a slight fluctuation during the statistical period.The co-agglomeration index of each province is different;the co-agglomeration indexes of Shanghai,Beijing,Tianjin and other provinces in the eastern region are higher;the co-agglomeration indexes of Xinjiang,Guizhou,Heilongjiang and other provinces in the central and western regions are lower.In terms of regional innovation efficiency,the overall innovation efficiency of China’s 30 provinces shows an upward trend within the statistical interval.The innovation efficiency of each province is different;the innovation efficiencies of the eastern provinces such as Beijing,Zhejiang and Guangdong are higher;western provinces such as Qinghai,Ningxia and Xinjiang have lower innovation efficiency.Thirdly,the panel data of manufacturing industry and the fixed-effects panel model are used to reveal the influence of industry-level characteristics of the co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing industry on innovation efficiency.It is discovered that the co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing can significantly improve the innovation efficiency;this conclusion still holds after robustness and endogeneity analysis.The results of industry heterogeneity analysis based on producer services show that the co-agglomeration of five industry sectors and manufacturing industry can significantly promote the innovation efficiency,but the degree of co-agglomeration between scientific research and technical services and manufacturing industry is weak.The results of industry heterogeneity analysis based on the manufacturing industry show that the proportion of state-owned enterprises and the average enterprise size of the industry will significantly weaken the promoting effect of the co-agglomeration on the innovation efficiency.Fourthly,using the provincial panel data and the spatial Dubin model,we explore the spatial effect and heterogeneity characteristics of the co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing on regional innovation efficiency.It is found that there is a significant positive spatial correlation between the co-agglomeration index and regional innovation efficiency of all provinces in China.The co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing can significantly improve the innovation efficiency of local region,but has no significant impact on the innovation efficiency of neighboring regions.This conclusion still holds after considering the issues of robustness and endogeneity.Under the condition of considering heterogeneity of manufacturing technology intensity,the co-agglomeration between producer services and high-tech manufacturing can promote the innovation efficiency of local region and can generate positive spillover to innovation efficiency of neighboring regions.The co-agglomeration of producer services and general manufacturing industry can also produce positive effect on the local innovation efficiency,but it is unable to spread the positive effects to neighboring areas.Considering regional heterogeneity,the co-agglomeration of producer services between manufacturing,high-tech manufacturing and general manufacturing in the eastern region can improve the regional innovation efficiency.If we only consider geographical distance friction among eastern provinces,the co-agglomeration of producer services between manufacturing industry and high-tech manufacturing industry can produce significant positive spillover effect between different regions,but the co-agglomeration of producer services and general manufacturing industry still cannot produce significant positive spillover effect between different regions.In the central and western regions,all of the three kinds of co-agglomeration can produce positive inter-regional spillover effects,but the co-agglomeration of producer services and high-tech manufacturing inhibits the improvement of regional innovation efficiency.Fifth,based on provincial panel data and panel threshold model,we explore the threshold characteristics of co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing on regional innovation efficiency.It is found that there is a single threshold for the variable of science and education level,and the threshold value is 86.Under the threshold of science and education level,the co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing industry has a positive and marginal increasing effect on regional innovation efficiency.Based on the latest data of 2020,50% of China’s provinces are in the optimal range of regional innovation efficiency driven by industrial co-agglomeration.The innovation climate variable has a double threshold,the two threshold values are 3.94 and 23.49 respectively.Under the threshold condition of regional innovation atmosphere,the co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing industries has a positive and marginal increasing effect on regional innovation efficiency.According to the latest data in 2020,most of the provinces in China are not in the range that is most conducive to the innovation efficiency driven by industrial collaboration.The marginal contribution of our study is as follows.We focus directly on innovation efficiency and explain the mechanism of the co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing on innovation efficiency.We extend the sample data to2020 and measured the co-agglomeration index and innovation efficiency at both industry and regional levels.In particular,the combination of three-stage DEA model and super-efficiency DEA model is used to estimate the innovation efficiency more accurately.Based on industrial and regional panel data,we firstly examine the effect of co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing on innovation efficiency from multiple dimension;secondly,we analyze the effectiveness and universality of co-agglomeration of producer services and manufacturing in driving innovation efficiency;finally,relevant policy suggestions are presented.Our study enriches two fields: industrial co-agglomeration and innovation efficiency and also further expands research on the impact of producer services and manufacturing co-agglomeration on innovation efficiency.In addition,our research is conductive to optimize the industrial layout,improve the plan of regional development,and provide scientific empirical basis for the construction of an innovative country. |
