自贸区设立何以赋能经济高质量发展——基于贸易、投资与创新的视角

How Can the Establishment of Free Trade Zones Enable High-quality Economic Development:From the Perspective of Trade,Investment and Innovation

自贸区是国内国际双循环背景下新一轮改革开放的“试验田”,其带来的制度创新与全方位改革对于驱动经济高质量发展具有重要意义。基于2000—2021年省级面板数据,借助自由贸易试验区设立这一准自然实验情景,系统考察自贸区设立对经济高质量发展的影响。研究发现:自贸区设立显著促进了经济高质量发展,这一结论经稳健性检验后依旧成立。从作用机制来看,自贸区设立通过贸易效应、投资效应及创新效应三条内在路径影响经济高质量发展。异质性分析发现,自贸区建设引致的经济高质量发展效应在不同设立批次、区位特征省份间存在异质性,且对设立批次早、内陆地区省份产生明显偏好。拓展性分析发现,自贸区建设通过空间溢出效应推动邻近地区经济高质量发展。研究结论在理论上为经济高质量发展新路径探索提供了全新视角,实践上为自贸区持续深化改革创新、推进更高水平对外开放提供了经验证据。

The free trade zone is a test field of China for a new round of reform and opening up in the context of dual circulation of domestic and international markets.The institutional innovation and all-round reform it brings are of great significance for driving high-quality economic development.With the establishment of pilot free trade zones as the quasi-natural experiment scenario,the impact of the establishment of free trade zones on high-quality economic development is systematically investigated based on the provincial panel data from 2000 to 2021.The study finds that the establishment of free trade zones significantly promotes high-quality economic development,and this conclusion is still valid after the robustness test.In terms of mechanism,the establishment of free trade zones affects the high-quality and quantitative economic development through three internal paths:trade effect,investment effect,and innovation effect.A heterogeneity analysis finds that the effect of high-quality economic development caused by free trade zone construction is heterogeneous among provinces with different establishment batches and regional characteristics,and there is a clear preference for provinces with early establishment batches and inland areas.An expansion analysis finds that the construction of free trade zones promotes the high-quality economic development of neighboring regions through the spatial spillover effect.Theoretically,the research conclusions provide a new perspective for exploring a new path of high-quality economic development,and practically,they provide empirical evidence for the continuous deepening of reform and innovation in the free trade zone as well as for promoting a higher level of opening-up.