The Research On Threshold Effect Of Human Capital To Regional Technology Innovation Capability

In the era of knowledge economy, knowledge and technology are becoming more and more important in economic growth. As the carrier of knowledge and technology, human capital has become the decisive force to promote technological innovation and economic growth. As far as reality is concerned, China is a country with a large population and abundant human resources. But at present the level of human capital in China is relatively low,and the level of human capital in different regions is also quite different, which limit the growth effect of human capital. This leads to the unbalanced development of regional technology innovation capability. Only if meeting some specific conditions such as the human capital level,the human capital can effectively promote the regional technology innovation capability. These specific conditions constitute the threshold of human capital to promote regional technology innovation capability. After crossing the specific threshold,a qualitative change will occur to the impact of human capital on regional technology innovation capability, which is referred to as the “threshold effect”. The specific threshold value can be used as the criteria for judging the development of different regions and the theoretical basis for policy formulation.Therefore, studying the threshold effect of human capital to regional technology innovation ability has significant theoretical and practical meaning to increase the accumulation of human capital in different areas, improve the regional technology innovation ability, as well as realize a balance coordinate and sustainable regional economy.This paper summarizes the domestic and foreign researches on the relationship between human capital and regional technology innovation capability, and takes the human capital theory and the regional technologyinnovation ability theory as theory guide. Then it explores the mechanism of human capital on regional technology innovation capability, and analyzes the status quo of human capital and regional technology innovation ability in eastern, central and western China. Finally, selecting the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2014, this paper builds the threshold model,chooses human capital level as the threshold variable, inspects threshold effect of human capital on technology innovation ability from national level and the three region level in China, and analyzes the empirical results.This paper obtains the following findings and conclusions: the impact of human capital on regional technology innovation ability exhibits a double threshold effect and the two threshold values are respectively 7.24 and 10.603.The human capital effect presents a step growth, and the overall human capital growth effect appears gradually. By studying of the three regions in China, this paper concludes that single threshold effect of human capital exists in all of the three regions. Specifically, the threshold value in the east, middle and west China is respectively 10.22,10.04 and 8.81. After stepping over the threshold,the human capital growth effect will increase about 2 times in the east, change from non-significantly to significantly in the middle, and get a bigger coefficient in the west. In addition, the impact of R&D expenditure,R&D personnel, finance, trade, infrastructure and other economic environment variables on regional technology innovation capacity also shows regional differences. R&D expenditure and R&D personnel play a significant role in the east, middle, west and the whole country. The level of financial development,trade openness and infrastructure construction has a significant impact in the east, but in the middle and in the west it is not obvious. Finally, in order to enhance the regional technology innovation ability and promote economic development, this paper puts forward some suggestions from three aspects,respectively the human capital investment, human capital allocation and strengthening the promoting impact of economic environment variables onregional technology innovation capability.