Imports Of Intermediate Goods,Absorptive Capacity And Technological Innovation

The 18th Party Congress put forward innovation-driven development strategy,and innovation had been placed in the core of national development.At present,China is at a critical stage of economic transformation and upgrading,accelerating technological innovation is not only an important choice to maintain the sustained and healthy development of our economy,but also a necessary way to narrow the technological gap with developed countries and improve international competitiveness.In the open economic environment,China should improve its own research and development capabilities to enhance technological innovation,and absorb foreign advanced technology to accelerate the process of technological innovation through international trade.As an important part of international trade,intermediate goods trade plays an important role in a country’s technological innovation,but the effect is positive or negative depended on a country’s absorptive capacity of technology.This paper analyzed the influence mechanism of imported intermediate goods on technological innovation from two aspects:direct and indirect influences.The"demonstration effect" and "resource allocation effect" of the intermediate imports could directly promote the technological innovation of a country,and the "crowding out effect" directly inhibited the technological innovation of a country.At the same time,the import of intermediate goods could also urge enterprises to increase R&D investment through the "cost effect",and promote the technological innovation of the country through the "competitive incentive effect" to promote the increase of human capital and R&D expenditure.And the absorptive capacity of a country played an important role on learning,understanding the advanced technology and imitation of intermediate imports,and thus promoted a country’s technological innovation.If a country’s absorptive capacity can not match the advanced technology level of imported intermediate products,it will not only promote technological innovation,but will have a negative impact.This paper took R&D capital stock and human capital as a measure of absorptive capacity and further studied the mechanisms about intermediate imports,absorptive capacity and technological innovation.This paper used BEC classification to calculate intermediate goods trade of China from the year of 1999 to 2014,founded that Chinese intermediate imports accounted for a larger proportion of total imports,and fluctuated between 73.59%-78.01%.The proportion of spare parts in intermediate imports fluctuated between 31.14%and 39.97%,and the spare parts mainly imported from developed countries,especially South Korea and Japan.At the same time,it analyzed the status quo of China’s technological innovation,and founded that the number of Chinese patent licenses had increased rapidly in recent years,the utility model patent license had been accounted for the largest proportion and the invention patents granted had been increased fastest in the three kinds of patents.There is still a big gap with developed countries about Chinese current level of technological innovation,especially in high-tech fields.On the basis of theoretical research and current situation research,this paper maked an empirical analysis on the relationship of the intermediate imports,absorptive capacity and technological innovation,by using Chinese provincial panel data from the year of 1999 to 2014.It had found that the intermediate imports had a significant effect on the technological innovation capability of China.The R&D capital stock had promoted the absorption effect of R&D spillovers of the imported intermediate products,while the capital of human weaken the effect of imports of intermediate goods on technological innovation which resulted from low level of human capital currenttly.In the further study of different levels of technological innovation,it had found that the import of intermediate products had a positive impact on Chinese medium-level technological innovation,but had a negetive effect on high level of technological innovation.The R&D capital stock had significantly contributed to the technological absorption of imported intermediate.At the same time,China is divided into different regions such as eastern,central and western regions,and found that the influence of intermediate imports on different levels of technological innovation ability was different in different regions.The import of intermediate goods significantly promoted the middle level of technological innovation,but inhibited the high level and low level of technological innovation in the eastern regions of China;Imports of intermediate goods was inhibited the three different levels of technological innovation in the central regions;while the import of intermediate goods had promoted the three different levels of technological innovation in the western region:the R&D capital stock levels had significantly contributed to absorpt technology spillovers of the intermediate improts,but there were regional differences about absorptive capacity of human capital.