空气污染、人力资本流动与创新活力——基于个体专利发明的经验证据

Air Pollution, Human Capital Flow and Innovative Vitality——Evidence from Individual Patent Inventions

人力资本作为创新发展的重要基础,是激发创新潜能的关键所在。本文基于个体专利发明的大样本数据和中国地级市的空气质量指数,研究了空气污染对发明人创新产出的影响及其作用机理。研究结果发现,空气污染会显著降低发明人的创新产出,抑制个体创新活力。同时,空气污染显著增加了人力资本流动的可能性,发明人更可能向空气质量较好的城市迁移。从影响机制看,空气污染会通过影响个体的健康和情绪状况,进而影响创新活力;从总体效应看,空气污染会进一步地从总体上降低地区的创新活力。此外,本文还对空气污染类型和创新类型进行分组检验,结果发现,相对于非发明专利,空气污染对创造力要求较高的发明专利的抑制作用更为明显;对个人健康影响更为严重的细微颗粒物PM10和PM2.5与创新产出的负向作用更为显著。在缓解内生性问题、排除替代性解释和遗漏变量检验等一系列稳健性检验之后,上述结论依旧成立。本文的结论不仅从微观个体的角度完善和丰富了创新的相关文献,也为地方政府引人引智工作、激发人才创新活力,从而推动经济的高质量发展提供了理论支持和经验证据。

As an important foundation for innovation development,human capital is the key to develop and stimulate innovation potential.Based on the large sample data of individual patent inventions and the Air Quality Index(AQI)of city-level in China,this paper systematically investigates the impact of air pollution on the inventor’s innovation output and its mechanism of action.We find that air pollution is significantly negatively associated with the innovation output of inventors due to it inhibits the vitality of individual innovation.At the same time,air pollution is significantly associated with the likelihood of human capital flow and inventors are more likely to migrate to cities with better air quality.The influence mechanism test shows that air pollution affects an individual’s health and emotional status,therefore impacts the vitality of individual innovation.In general,air pollution further diminishes the overall innovation of the region.Compared with the non-invention patents,the heterogeneity test also finds that air pollution,especially the fine particles PM10 and PM2.5,had a more significant effect on invention patents.The results are robust to several sensitivity tests,such as alleviating endogenous problems,mitigating alternative explanations and missing variables.This paper not only enriches the relevant literature of innovation on the individual-level,but also provides enlightenment for promoting the work of attracting talents to local governments,stimulating the innovative vitality of talents and promoting the high-quality development of economy.