Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/155612 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 6370
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Understanding the factors that may produce a sustained rate of innovation is important for promoting economic development and growth. In this paper, we examine the role of human capital in firms’ innovation by using a large sample of manufacturing firms from China. We use two firm-level datasets from China: one from metropolitan cities, and one from provincial small and medium sized cities. Patent applications are used as the measure of innovation. Human capital indicators used include skilled human capital (number of highly educated workers), general manager’s education and tenure, and management team’s education and age. We find that skilled human capital has a significant positive effect on firms’ innovation, while the management team’s age has a significant negative effect on innovation. The General Manager’s tenure plays a significant positive role in firm innovation in metropolitan cities, while it is the General Manager’s education that has a positive and significant effect on firms’ innovation in small and middle cities. We also find that the effect of R&D on patents is insignificant for firms in large cities, but it is positive and significant in the smaller and medium sized cities. We conclude by noting some policy issues for promoting innovation in developing economies.
Subjects: 
human capital
education
innovation
patents
R&D
economic development
Asia
China
JEL: 
J24
I25
D21
D22
L13
O32
O33
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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