对外开放是否缩小了中美制造业的技术差距

Does Openness Reduce the Technology Gap between China and the United States?

对外开放是中国政府推动经济增长和技术进步的重要决策。然而,对外开放是否缩小了中美两国的技术差距。本文采用1998—2011年中国制造业最为细分的4位码行业数据,考察了贸易开放和外商直接投资(FDI)对中美制造业技术差距的影响。研究结果表明:出口贸易不利于缩小中美技术差距,进口贸易显著缩小了中美技术差距,FDI对中美技术差距的影响不显著;从影响渠道来看,进口贸易的竞争效应比溢出效应更能缩小中美技术差距;FDI的竞争效应缩小了中美技术差距而溢出效应扩大了中美技术差距;贸易开放和FDI通过资源再配置和降低融资约束缩小了中美技术差距;贸易开放和引进外资对于缩小中美制造业技术差距的影响作用及影响渠道不同,具有比较重要的政策启示。

Opening up is an important policy for the Chinese government to promote economic growth and technological progress.However,does openness reduce the technology gap between China and the United States?Using China’s highly disaggregated manufacturing industry data,we examined the impact of trade and FDI on the technology gap between China and the United States.We find that export increases the gap,but imports reduces the gap,and the effect of FDI is not statistically significant.In terms of the underlying channels,import reduces the technology gap both through spillover and particularly through competition,FDI widens the technology gap through the spillover effect,but reduces it through the competition effect.Both trade and FDI reduce the technology gap through reallocating resources and lowering financial constraints.Our analysis has important policy implications for highlighting the different role of trade and FDI in reducing the technology gap.