The Effects Of "Talent Special Zone" Policy On Urban Innovation Capabilities

The 20 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed that " we must regard science and technology as our primary productive force,talent as our primary resource,and innovation as our primary driver of growth." Against the background of the need for innovation and development,and the transformation of demographic dividends in China,in 2010,the "National Program for Medium and Long-term Talent Development(2010-2020)" clearly proposed the establishment of the pilot zones for talent management reform.Subsequently,governments at all levels promulgated the "Talent Special Zone" policy to attract high-quality professionals and promote regional innovation and development through industrial guidance combined with production factors and policy tool support.In 2016,the "Guideline on Reform of the Talent Evaluation System" proposed to remove institutional obstacles to the talent administration,and further emphasized the importance of optimizing and perfecting personnel policies.In 2022,the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee reviewed the "National Talent Development Plan during the 14 th Five-Year Plan Period" and proposed to accelerate the construction of a talent gathering platform and create a talent innovation highland.In the current context,whether the "Talent Special Zone" policy has promoted the improvement of urban innovation capabilities,what are the influencing factors,and through what channels are these issues worthy of exploration and research.Therefore,this paper focuses on the impact of the "Talent Special Zone" policy on urban innovation capabilities,provides ideas for finding the key points of the personnel policy for the improvement of urban innovation capabilities,and makes policy suggestions for the further optimization of personnel resources management.The research combines theory and practical significance.Starting from the "Talent Special Zone" policy,this paper focuses on exploring its impact on urban innovation capabilities.Firstly,the paper defines the concepts of talent,urban innovation,and the "Talent Special Zone" policy,and summarizes the measurement methods and influencing factors of innovation,research on personnel policies and their impact on innovation,and proposes a theoretical model to illustrate how the "Talent Special Zone" policy influences urban innovation capabilities,namely,by promoting talent aggregation through the rational allocation of resources and assisting industrial aggregation to improve urban innovation capabilities.Then,using231 city-level data in China from 2004 to 2016,this paper constructs a staggered DID model to empirically examine the impact of the "Talent Special Zone" policy on urban innovation capabilities and explore the mechanisms.To further support the results,this paper conducts a series of tests to demonstrate the robustness of the results,including Parallel Trend Test,Dynamic Trend Test,Placebo Test,Year-by-year PSM-DID Test,removal of the impacts of other policies,substitution of measures for urban innovation capacity,changes in time windows,etc.Building on this,this paper further explores the differences in the impact of the "Talent Special Zone" policy across different city sizes,urban characteristics,and industries,and tests its effect on the innovation capabilities of emerging industries of strategic importance in cities.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: Firstly,overall,the "Talent Special Zone" policy has significantly promoted the improvement of urban innovation capabilities,but the policy effect decreases over time.Development-oriented and security-oriented policies have a significant positive impact on improving urban innovation capabilities,while reward-oriented policies do not have a significant effect.Secondly,the "Talent Special Zone" policy further amplifies knowledge spillover effects,economies of scale effects,and innovation spillover effects through talent agglomeration and industrial agglomeration effects,thus enhancing urban innovation capabilities.Thirdly,in terms of urban population size,the implementation of development-oriented and security-oriented policies in small and medium-sized cities has a significant positive effect on urban innovation capacity,while the policy effect is not significant in large cities.Therefore,policy makers need to clarify the policy orientation and avoid problems such as policy scale being too large or policy resources being dispersed.Fourthly,in terms of urban characteristics,the implementation of security-oriented policies in cities with medium-to-low housing prices has the most significant positive effect on urban innovation capacity,followed by developmentoriented policies.Sufficient financial support is needed to fully realize the policy effect.Fifthly,in terms of urban industry,cities with a moderate degree of industrial upgrading have a significant policy effect.The government should combine industry guidance to develop "Talent Special Zone" policies,introduce high-quality professionals that match the development of the industry,and significantly promote the innovation capacity of emerging industries of strategic importance.