An Explanation for China’s Economic Growth: Expenditure on R&D Promotes Economic Growth —Based on China’s Provincial Panel Data of 1997-2013

Huachun Wang; Dingchang Wu

doi:10.4236/jssm.2015.86082

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JSSM> Vol.8 No.6, December 2015

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An Explanation for China’s Economic Growth: Expenditure on R&D Promotes Economic Growth
—Based on China’s Provincial Panel Data of 1997-2013

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DOI: 10.4236/jssm.2015.86082 1,975 Downloads 2,456 Views Citations

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Huachun Wang, Dingchang Wu^*

Affiliation(s)

School of Government, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.

ABSTRACT

There are so many reasons to explain the China’s economic growth. This paper tries to give a different perspective. This study examines the relationship between expenditure on R&D from government and enterprise and economic growth by using China’s provincial panel data of 1997-2013 with a multiple linear regression. The study finds that there is a strong and positive correlation between expenditure on R&D and economic growth. Moreover, the study has a new finding. Compared to enterprise R&D strong correlation, the correlation between government R&D expenditure and the economic growth is nearly zero. One possibility is that government R&D expenditure is more directed toward basic research, which does not directly promote economic growth. The finding does not imply that government R&D expenditure is not a necessary component for economic growth. Both enterprise and government R&D expenditure are important for economic growth.

KEYWORDS

Government R&D Expenditure, Enterprise R&D Expenditure, Innovation Growth, Regression Analysis, Economic Growth

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Cite this paper

Wang, H. and Wu, D. (2015) An Explanation for China’s Economic Growth: Expenditure on R&D Promotes Economic Growth
—Based on China’s Provincial Panel Data of 1997-2013. Journal of Service Science and Management, 8, 809-816. doi: 10.4236/jssm.2015.86082.

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