COLLEGE EXPANSION, TRADE, AND INNOVATION: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ma, Xiao
• 署名单位: Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School (PKU Shenzhen); Peking University
• 刊物名称: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0020-6598
• DOI: 10.1111/iere.12670
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 315-351
• 关键词: level productivity; higher-education; GROWTH; TECHNOLOGY; MARKET; IMPACT; POLICY; FIRMS; LIBERALIZATION; performance

摘要

China has expanded the yearly quota on newly admitted college students by more than seven times since 1999. How did this massive education expansion affect firms' export and innovation choices? I document that after this expansion impacted the labor market, manufacturing firms' innovation increased considerably, especially among exporting firms, accompanied by sizable skill upgrading of exports. I then develop a multi-industry spatial equilibrium model, featuring skill intensity differences across industries and heterogeneous firms' innovation and export choices. Quantitatively, the college expansion explained 72% of increases in China's manufacturing research and development (R&D) intensity between 2003 and 2018 and also triggered export skill upgrading.