Economic growth across Chinese provinces : insearch of innovation-driven gains

In this paper we analyse the impact of R&D on total factor productivity across Chinese provinces. We introduce innovations explicitly into a production function and evaluate their contribution to economic growth in 1993 - 2006. The empirical results highlight the importance and the interaction between local and external research. The evidence indicates that growth in China is not explained simply by factor input accumulation. Keywords: China, R&D, R&D Spillovers, patents, regional economic growth, semiparametric estimators JEL-Classification: C14, O47, R11, R12