中国农业技术扩散与生产率区域差距

Technology Diffusion and Regional Productivity Gaps in China’s Agricultural Sector

加快农业技术扩散、缩小农业生产率区域差距是推进乡村振兴、促进区域协调发展的重要内容。中国要素流动日趋自由,但农业生产率区域差距不降反升。为解释这一特征事实,本文以适宜性技术进步理论和诱致性技术创新理论为核心,系统剖析资源禀赋、地理距离和行政管辖三大约束条件对农业技术扩散和生产率赶超的影响,并提出“技术扩散和生产率赶超更有可能发生在资源禀赋相似、地理距离相近以及行政管辖相同地区”的假说。在此基础上,本文构建多维前沿生产率赶超模型,并采用1985—2015年中国县级农业平衡面板数据,从多个维度实证考察中国农业技术扩散和生产率赶超情况及其传导机制。结果表明,随着资源禀赋、地理距离和行政管辖范围的扩大,技术扩散和生产率赶超速度显著下降且衰减速度极快,这加剧了“强者更强、弱者更弱”的分化局面,一定程度上解释了“农业生产率区域差距扩大”之谜。

Accelerating diffusion of agricultural technology and narrowing agricultural productivity gap across regions are important for promoting rural revitalization and coordinated regional development.China’s urban-rural factor mobility is becoming increasingly free,but the regional agricultural productivity gap is widening over time.To explain this contradiction,this paper adds to existing literature from three perspectives,namely,theoretical framework,empirical method and research data.On the theoretical part,based on the appropriate innovation theory and induced innovation theory,we systematically analyze the effects of three major constraints,namely,resource endowment,geographical proximity and administrative jurisdiction,on diffusion of agricultural technology and productivity catch-up.In terms of methodology,this paper establishes a multidimensional frontier productivity catch-up model,which provides an econometric tool to test the hypothesis that“technology diffusion and productivity catch-up are more likely to occur in areas with similar resource endowment,areas in closer distance,and areas within the same administrative jurisdiction.”Regarding data source,this paper uses county-level balanced panel data for China from 1985 to 2015 to empirically investigate diffusion of agricultural technology and productivity catch-up at the same time.The empirical results show that widening of differences in resource endowment,geographical distance and administrative jurisdictional will weaken technology diffusion from frontier regions,decelerate the interregional agricultural productivity catch-up and lead to enlarged regional productivity gap.The speed of technology diffusion and productivity catch-up gradually slows down in the following cases:(1)when the resource endowment across counties are more different from each other(within the same resource endowment sub-group-within the same resource endowment group-nationwide);(2)when the geographical proximity across counties are larger(within the radius of 100 kilometers-within the radius of 200 kilometers-within the radius of 400 kilometers-nationwide);and(3)when the research scope of administrative jurisdiction expands(within the same city-within the same provincial region-nationwide).In terms of mechanism analysis,this paper finds evidence that resource endowment,geographical proximity and administrative jurisdiction all significantly affect the relative price of land and labor.Moreover,these three factors also have significant impacts on substitution rate and substitution elasticity across inputs when the relative price of land and labor is controlled.This paper makes the following innovations.(1)Taking China as an example,we extend the appropriate innovation theory to agriculture and combine with the induced innovation theory to establish a new analytical framework that investigates the channels through which resource endowment,geographical proximity and administrative jurisdiction affect the speed of technology diffusion and productivity catch-up.(2)This paper uses the productivity catch-up model rather than the traditional convergence model to jointly investigate diffusion of agricultural technology and productivity catch-up,and extend the classic single-dimensional frontier model to a multidimensional one so that multiple constraints can be considered simultaneously.(3)In this paper,we conduct the empirical analysis using long panel data at county level to overcome the shortcomings of using macro data at provincial level and micro data at rural household level in existing literature.(4)Different from existing studies that focus on convergence at national level,this paper proposes and tests the hypothesis that“technology diffusion and productivity catch-up are more likely to occur in areas with similar resources endowment,areas in closer distance,and areas within the same administrative jurisdiction”,which provides a potential explanation of the widening agricultural productivity gap across regions in China.This paper offers the following policy implications.(1)The findings comprehensively reflect the changes in China’s agricultural productivity.Specifically,China’s agricultural productivity has achieved remarkable growth but the regional gap has enlarged.(2)To narrow the agricultural productivity gap,Chinese government should relax the regional administrative constraints on the diffusion of agricultural technology by increasing agricultural R&D investment in disadvantaged provincial regions through transfer payments and promoting the flow and integrated development of factors in different regions through regional integration policies.(3)Chinese government should eliminate the constraints of geographical distance to technology confusion.On the one hand,it can strengthen the construction of transportation and communication facilities,to reduce interregional transportation cost,and promote communication across regions.On the other hand,it needs to consider the sphere of influence of regional agricultural technology centers to optimize their spatial distribution.