获取新技术是否以提高中国的产品质量？以企业层次的面板数据为依据

Is technology acquisition enough to improve China＇s product quality？ Evidence from firm-level panel data

随着众多发展中国家逐渐打开国门开展贸易交流，这些国家中的很多工业企业发现由于自身产品质量与品种的贫乏，很难在国际上参与竞争。尽管中国自1996年以来一直是全球最大的粗钢生产国，但随着本国钢材采购商对钢材质量要求的逐步提升，中国钢材企业低质量钢材的生产已经过剩。本文使用了企业层次的中国钢材企业的面板数据，计量分析了影响企业采用新技术提高产品质量的两套可能因素的相对重要性，它们分别为：技术获取因素与技术吸收能力因素。另外，研究发现一些诸如内部R＆D与国外知识等技术补充必须与技术相结合以提高中国企业的产品质量。

As developing countries open themselves up to trade, many industrial firms in these countries are finding it difficult to compete internationally due to poor product quality and low product variety. Although China has been the largest producer of crude steel since 1996, China＇s steel firms have produced an overabundance of low-quality steel while domestic purchasers of steel have increasingly demanded higher quality steel products. Many have argued that for Chinese steel firms to improve product quality they must adopt more advanced technologies. Employing firm- level panel data of steel firms in China, we econometrically test the relative importance of two possible sets of factors affecting a firm＇s ability to utilize technology to improve product quality technology acquisition factors and technology absorptive capacity factors. We find that technology complements such as in-house R＆D and foreign knowledge must be combined with technology for Chinese firms to improve product quality.