Technological Innovation, Knowledge Spillover And Regional Economic Growth

In the new economic growth theory, technological innovation and knowledge spillover are seen as an endogenous variable in their models. But the space factor has been overlooked. As the development of new economic geography, the space factor is taken seriously by scholars. They see knowledge spillover as a process of interaction between regions. Many studies prove that inter-regional knowledge spillovers do exist. This will make people reconsider the relationship between technological innovation and economic growth. Then in this paper, the relationship will be discussed on the basis of the new economic geography theory and the new economic growth theory by means of the latest spatial econometrics approach and model. This article consists of two parts. The first part is to discuss the knowledge spillover mechanism in space in order to reveal the process of innovation spillover. And the second part is to analyze two pairs of relationships. One is the relationship between technological innovation and economic growth, while the other between innovation spillover and economic growth.Based on the study of the knowledge spillover mechanism from space dimension, we find that R&D investment, including R&D capital and R&D personnel, still plays a major role in promoting technological progress. And knowledge spillover from outside also has a significant impact on the province innovation. Improving the absorption capacity of knowledge, by Increasing the stock of knowledge, can significantly promote knowledge spillover, and then promote technological progress. By establishing cooperation between enterprises, R&D institutions and universities, knowledge spillover can significantly promote technological innovation. But it doesn’t work successfully through International Trade and FDI.From the empirical results of the study about the relationship between technological innovation and economic growth in china, it shows that independent technological innovation has significantly promoted provincial economic growth. Innovation spillover and economic growth is a positive correlation. But the effect that innovation spillover plays on economic growth is not significant yet. Based on the conclusions above, this paper suggests that firstly our government can promote economic growth by technological innovation. And increasing R&D investment, accelerating the accumulation of knowledge stock should be the main approach to promote technological innovation. Secondly, it is necessary for our government to strengthen regional exchange and cooperation, especially to establish the cooperation between enterprises, universities and R&D institutions so as to open the channel for innovation spillover. And provincial economic growth will benefit from it. Last but not least, some of the provinces in the central and western areas of our country should be supported to improve their innovative capacity first, which will surely play a positive role in a technological advancement and the acceleration of regional economy.