Does Human Capital Homogeneously Improve the Corporate Innovation: Evidence from China’s Higher Education Expansion in the Late 1990s
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. Policy-Driven College Expansion
2.2. Skilled Human Capital and Innovation
3. Methodology
3.1. Identification Strategy
3.2. Data
3.3. Sample Construction
4. Model and Results
4.1. Setup
4.2. Estimation Results
4.2.1. Baseline Regression
4.2.2. Dynamic Regression
4.3. Robustness Test
4.3.1. WTO Accession
4.3.2. Other Macroeconomic Shocks
4.3.3. Further Robustness Checks
4.4. Heterogeneous Analysis
4.4.1. Type of Patent Application
4.4.2. Export Companies and Non-Export Companies
4.4.3. Capital-Intensive and Labor-Intensive Industries
4.5. Potential Mechanisms
4.5.1. R&D Investment
4.5.2. Patent Stock
4.5.3. Agglomeration and Knowledge Spillover
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Variable | Mean | Min. | P50 | Max. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Basic firm characteristics | ||||
Total assets | 75,489.45 | 0 | 13,524 | 1.72 × 108 |
Firm age | 11.29996 | 1 | 7 | 359 |
Number of employees | 248.9693 | 0 | 100 | 198,971 |
Output | 1,954,322 | 0 | 19,624 | 1.93 × 108 |
Innovation variables | ||||
Patent application | 0.3209843 | 0 | 0 | 6122 |
Invention patent application | 0.099444 | 0 | 0 | 5757 |
Granted patent | 0.2529065 | 0 | 0 | 5487 |
Granted invention patent | 0.0478676 | 0 | 0 | 4398 |
Patent citation | 0.0359519 | 0 | 0 | 564.6 |
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | (8) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Industry HC intensity * Post03 | 0.203 *** | 0.192 *** | 0.069 ** | 0.072 ** | ||||
(0.021) | (0.021) | (0.030) | (0.030) | |||||
Industry HC intensity*1999 | −0.051 * | −0.005 | −0.010 | −0.043 | ||||
(0.028) | (0.025) | (0.026) | (0.029) | |||||
Industry HC intensity*2000 | −0.059 * | −0.006 | 0.010 | −0.047 | ||||
(0.032) | (0.031) | (0.031) | (0.031) | |||||
Industry HC intensity*2001 | −0.008 | 0.051 | 0.027 | −0.036 | ||||
(0.034) | (0.038) | (0.034) | (0.030) | |||||
Industry HC intensity*2002 | 0.081 ** | 0.142 *** | 0.108 *** | 0.075 ** | ||||
(0.036) | (0.042) | (0.035) | (0.029) | |||||
Industry HC intensity*2003 | 0.072 ** | 0.113 ** | 0.076 ** | 0.067 ** | ||||
(0.036) | (0.053) | (0.038) | (0.026) | |||||
Industry HC intensity*2004 | 0.090 ** | 0.129 ** | 0.103 *** | 0.080 *** | ||||
(0.037) | (0.055) | (0.040) | (0.025) | |||||
Industry HC intensity*2005 | 0.070 * | 0.109 * | 0.081 * | 0.060 ** | ||||
(0.039) | (0.056) | (0.042) | (0.025) | |||||
Industry HC intensity*2006 | 0.057 | 0.096 * | 0.083 * | 0.047 * | ||||
(0.041) | (0.058) | (0.044) | (0.025) | |||||
Industry HC intensity*2007 | 0.114 *** | 0.153 ** | 0.173 *** | 0.100 *** | ||||
(0.044) | (0.060) | (0.047) | (0.026) | |||||
Capital intensity*year indicators | - | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
External finance*year indicators | - | - | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Contract enforcement*year indicators | - | - | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Province by year FE | - | - | - | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Linear industry trend | - | - | - | - | - | Yes | - | - |
1995 industry lpatents*year dummy | - | - | - | - | - | - | Yes | - |
98-02 lpatents*year dummy | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | Yes |
Firm FE | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Year FE | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Observations | 1,327,930 | 1,327,930 | 1,327,930 | 1,327,930 | 1,327,930 | 1,327,930 | 859,907 | 1,327,930 |
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | (8) | (9) | (10) | (11) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Excluding Computer Industry | Excluding Footwear Industry | Interaction of Export Industry with post03 | Control for 2-Digit Industry Level Tariffs | Shock is Defined as the Increase in New College Graduates Relative to Labor Force | Excluding Beijing and Shanghai | Subsample of Entrants | Balanced Panel of Firms | ||||
Shock1 | Shock2 | ||||||||||
Above Median | Below Median | Above Median | Below Median | ||||||||
Industry HC intensity*Post2003 | 0.072 ** | 0.077 ** | 0.073 ** | 0.071 ** | 0.124 ** | 0.050 | 0.155 *** | 0.040 | 0.066 ** | 0.110 * | 0.205 *** |
(0.030) | (0.030) | (0.030) | (0.031) | (0.053) | (0.042) | (0.060) | (0.040) | (0.031) | (0.063) | (0.069) | |
Input tariff | 0.000 | ||||||||||
(0.001) | |||||||||||
Output tariff | −0.000 | ||||||||||
(0.000) | |||||||||||
Baseline controls | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Observations | 1,319,772 | 1,307,753 | 1,327,930 | 1,243,698 | 375,483 | 673,936 | 335,212 | 714,207 | 1,220,988 | 422,906 | 106,470 |
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | (8) | (9) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Export_1 | Export_0 | K_intensity | L_intensity | All Firms | R&D Firms | All Firms | |||
Panel A | |||||||||
Industry HC intensity * Post03 | 0.072 ** | 0.109 *** | 0.406 *** | 0.030 | 0.139 ** | 0.048 | 0.056 *** | ||
(0.030) | (0.019) | (0.097) | (0.028) | (0.068) | (0.047) | (0.016) | |||
Panel B | |||||||||
Industry HC intensity*1999 | −0.051 * | −0.036 *** | |||||||
(0.028) | (0.014) | ||||||||
Industry HC intensity*2000 | −0.059 * | −0.038 ** | |||||||
(0.032) | (0.016) | ||||||||
Industry HC intensity*2001 | −0.008 | 0.010 | 0.955 *** | 0.839 | |||||
(0.034) | (0.019) | (0.197) | (0.836) | ||||||
Industry HC intensity*2002 | 0.081 ** | 0.089 *** | 0.999 *** | 1.322 * | |||||
(0.036) | (0.021) | (0.187) | (0.748) | ||||||
Industry HC intensity*2003 | 0.072 ** | 0.070 *** | 1.241 *** | 1.586 *** | |||||
(0.036) | (0.022) | (0.150) | (0.584) | ||||||
Industry HC intensity*2004 | 0.090 ** | 0.103 *** | |||||||
(0.037) | (0.024) | ||||||||
Industry HC intensity*2005 | 0.070 * | 0.142 *** | 0.971 *** | 1.039 ** | |||||
(0.039) | (0.026) | (0.105) | (0.450) | ||||||
Industry HC intensity*2006 | 0.057 | 0.136 *** | 0.936 *** | 0.657 * | |||||
(0.041) | (0.027) | (0.097) | (0.386) | ||||||
Industry HC intensity*2007 | 0.114 *** | 0.219 *** | |||||||
(0.044) | (0.029) | ||||||||
Baseline controls | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Observations | 1,327,930 | 1,327,930 | 383,955 | 943,975 | 456,776 | 424,368 | 1,331,863 | 168,297 | 1,327,708 |
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Variables | |||||
Industry HC intensity * Post03 | 0.0067 * | 0.0006 | 0.0018 | 0.0052 | 0.0083 |
(0.004) | (0.004) | (0.005) | (0.005) | (0.005) | |
Industry HC intensity * Post03* Province-year Ratio of graduates to labor force | 0.0201 *** | ||||
(0.007) | |||||
Industry HC intensity * Post03* Province-year Ratio of graduates in science and engineering to labor force | 0.0205 ** | ||||
(0.009) | |||||
Industry HC intensity * Post03* Province-year Ratio of graduates in economy, management and law to labor force | 0.0102 | ||||
(0.008) | |||||
Industry HC intensity * Post03* Province-year Ratio of graduates in other fields to labor force | −0.0010 | ||||
(0.009) | |||||
Capital intensity*year indicators | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
External finance*year indicators | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Contract enforcement*year indicators | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Province FE | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Year FE | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Observations | 1,327,927 | 1,327,927 | 708,261 | 708,261 | 708,261 |
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Kang, M.; Li, Y.; Zhao, Z.; Zheng, M.; Wu, H. Does Human Capital Homogeneously Improve the Corporate Innovation: Evidence from China’s Higher Education Expansion in the Late 1990s. Sustainability 2022, 14, 12352. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912352
Kang M, Li Y, Zhao Z, Zheng M, Wu H. Does Human Capital Homogeneously Improve the Corporate Innovation: Evidence from China’s Higher Education Expansion in the Late 1990s. Sustainability. 2022; 14(19):12352. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912352
Chicago/Turabian StyleKang, Meiling, Yucheng Li, Zhongkuang Zhao, Minjuan Zheng, and Han Wu. 2022. "Does Human Capital Homogeneously Improve the Corporate Innovation: Evidence from China’s Higher Education Expansion in the Late 1990s" Sustainability 14, no. 19: 12352. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912352