4.1. Hypothesis
Science and technology resources allocation elements includes the capital, talent, knowledge, patents, information and so on in a narrow sense. The broad sense also includes laboratory equipment, research facilities such as libraries, databases, information networks,
etc. Science and technology capital provide funding for science and technology activities, is the precondition of science and technology activities to conduct. Talent is the source of science and technology innovation of science and technology, also is the main body of science and technology activities. Information, infrastructure and equipment is the supporting condition of science and technology activities [
23]. According to related researches, regional comparative advantage of scientific and technological human resources, financial resources and environmental resources are the direct cause of regional scientific and technological resources allocation efficiency [
24]. Developed areas keep the sustainable development of high growth speed and economic prosperity by configuring scientific and technological resources and strengthening innovation ability and obtaining economic benefits; less developed areas can also achieve technological leapfrogging and even become creative areas through the development of regional science and technology, or by breeding the technology absorption capacity [
25]. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between science and technology resources allocation and the regional sustainable development from three aspects: science and technology human resources, financial resources and environmental resources.
Human resources are a motive force to promote sustainable economic development and determines modern economic growth and development. In given conditions of natural resources, physical capital, labor and other inputs, the improvement of human capital will lead to outward expansion of social production possibilities frontier. Or under a given output, the improvement of human capital will lead to reduction of natural resources, physical capital investment, save the resources and guarantee sustainable development. Facing problems such as pollution and resource depletion, accumulation of human capital can improve the efficiency of the use of natural resources, and prompt people to seek out alternatives and provide a warranty on knowledge and skills when non-renewable resources run out. In the economic development of developed countries the national income created by the natural resources assets contribution decrease from 45% to about 25%. The contribution of human labor (knowledge and skills) share increase from 55% to 75%. That is to say, in the process of economic modernization, human capital becomes more and more important, contribution to economic growth is becoming bigger and bigger. A lot of history suggests, Human capital investment and value-added is the key factor for country’s economy breaking its natural resources bottleneck to enter the high quality economy. Due to lack of the accumulation of human capital, human capital returns is very low in China. However, the human capital investment will no doubt play a more important role in the future, the importance to the coordination of economy and society, the comprehensive and sustainable development is self-evident. Under the trend of economic globalization, whether a country is rich in natural resources is not very important. As long as have a high quality human capital team, one country can achieve economic take-off. Only the priority to the development of human capital makes the development of country enter the sustainable development based on human capital, overcome the disadvantages social and economic development right now and make the development of one country into the track of benign cycle development. General studies use pure science and technology personnel number or received higher education personnel to measure a region science and technology human resource. This paper argues that science and technology human resource include not only explicit human capital, but also the invisible human capital of education, science, etc. So it divides science and technology human resource into science and technology personnel quantity, popularization of science and technology and labor education. So three hypothesis are brought forward:
H1: Regional scientific and technological personnel positively relate to local sustainable development. The more regional scientific and technological personnel is, the more sustainable local economy is.
H2: Regional popularization of science and technology positively relate to local sustainable development. The more regional popularization of science and technology is, the more sustainable local economy is.
H3: Regional labor education positively relate to local sustainable development. The more education labor got, the more sustainable local economy is.
In the process of the development of science and technology, capital investment plays an important role. Any scientific and technological innovation, no matter original innovation, integrated innovation, or the introduction of digestion-absorption-innovation, there must be a large number support of research and development of science and technology. This requests that when making long-term science and technology development strategic plan, increase the science and technology research and development funding must be the important content of the policy. In knowledge economy era, scientific research in essence is a process of knowledge innovation and production, scientific research funding is the basic condition of knowledge production and the most important guarantee. In order to get rid of poverty and achieve long-term development, many developing countries are trying to increase investment in science and technology, give special attention to talents and science and technology capacity building. It is worth noting that on the investment in science and technology there is still a huge gap in developed world and developing world. High-tech industry has the characteristics of high investment, high risk and high return. Science and technology capital investment discovers and cultivates potential small and medium-sized enterprises, and help the outstanding ones with capital. At the same time, capital investment will also be fully mobilize the enthusiasm of scientific and technological personnel, short the distance of the science, technology and industry. Capital input of science and technology not only provides the needed capital, but also offers the development of innovative enterprise a variety of other social resources, make its competitive advantage format rapidly. Science and technology funds investment for the development of high and new technology, which includes not only government behavior in the investment, but also independent enterprise or scientific research institutes’ research and development behavior. Therefore, a science and technology investment can be divided into total funding of science and technology, government financial support, enterprise research and development enthusiasm. So three hypothesis can be made as follows:
H4: Regional total funding of science and technology positively relate to local sustainable development. The more total funding of science and technology there is, the more sustainable the local economy is.
H5: Regional government financial support positively relate to local sustainable development. The more government financial support there is, the more sustainable the local economy is.
H6: Regional enterprise research and development enthusiasm positively relate to local sustainable development. The more enterprise research and development enthusiasm there is, the more sustainable the local economy is.
Obviously, the science and technology environment in one area includes a region’s economic level, infrastructure construction and industrial structure. Products and services provide by urban infrastructures can be used as an intermediate input directly involved in the city production process. Therefore, the development level of the urban infrastructure directly or indirectly affects the cost and efficiency of the production department, thus affects urban economic growth. For example, a developed city’s traffic and communication systems create production elements space transfer and market trading convenience for specialized division of labor, and this enables mass production based on specialization, promotes economic activities geographically concentrated, results in the decrease of the average cost, and achieves economies of scale and agglomerate economy. At the same time, economic growth stimulates the demand for infrastructure and other services, forming a virtuous cycle. Infrastructure development level and service quality directly decides the investor’s risk, uncertainty and transaction costs. The World Bank’s research shows that infrastructure shortage and high costs do not form a complete set, and these are the main problems in the business environment. This is especially important for small and medium enterprises. World economic development processes indicate that industrial structure changes and gradually evolves as the change of demand structure of and technical progress. In order to realize sustainable development and the prosperity of a city, the industry is a basic and fundamental support. Only after a city’s industry has developed, will a large number of employment opportunities be created. Then, they absorb a large number of the population and explore and develop both at home and abroad. Industrial structure, especially the proportion of high technology industry demonstrates the development level of high-tech industry. Therefore, the following hypotheses can be made:
H7: Regional economic level positively relate to local sustainable development. The higher the economic level, the more sustainable the local economy.
H8: Regional infrastructure construction positively relate to local sustainable development. The higher the infrastructure construction level, the more sustainable the local economy.
H9: Regional proportion of high technology industry relate positively to local sustainable development. The higher the proportion of high technology industry, the more sustainable the local economy.
4.2. Variables and Evaluation Index
Regional sustainable development is an explained variable, measured with the human development index (HDI), shown in
Table 2. Explanatory variables can be divided into three aspects: science and technology human resource, science and technology financial resource and science and technology environment resource. Evaluation index are shown in
Table 1.
Table 2.
Variables measurement index.
Table 2.
Variables measurement index.
Variable | Measurement Index |
---|
sustainable development | human development index(HDI) |
scientific and technological personnel | technical personnel number per ten thousand people |
popularization of science and technology | Popularization of science and technology funding per capita |
labor education | proportion of education funding in local fiscal expenditure budget |
regional total funding of science and technology | proportion of science and technology investment in GDP |
government financial support | proportion of science and technology funding in fiscal expenditure |
enterprise research and development enthusiasm | proportion of enterprise technology research and development fee in main business income |
economic level | per capita GDP |
infrastructure construction | informationalized level |
industrial structure | proportion of high-tech industry |
From the perspective of human resources, general studies use science and technology personnel numbers or received higher education personnel to measure a region’s science and technology human input. This paper argues that the human input include not only explicitly consider human capital investment, but also the invisible education popularization of science to the human capital, etc., so that it uses technical personnel number per ten thousand people, popularization of science and technology funding per capita, proportion of education funding in local fiscal expenditure budget as the measurement index of scientific and technological personnel, popularization of science and technology and labor education, respectively.
From the perspective of financial resources, this paper argues that funded investment of science and technology includes not only government investment, but also independent research and development of enterprise, and research activities of scientific research institutes. A proportion of science and technology investment in the GDP, a proportion of science and technology funding in fiscal expenditure and a proportion of enterprise technology research and development fee in main business income are used as measurement index of the regional total funding of science and technology, government financial support and enterprise research and development enthusiasm.
Obviously, the science and technology environment firstly relates to the region’s economic level and infrastructure construction. Per capita l GDP, informationalized level are used as measurement index of environment resource, including economic level, infrastructure construction. Secondly, the regional science and technology environment should also include the region’s industrial structure, especially for scientific and technological innovation, the proportion of high technology industry in the area is especially important. Therefore, a proportion of high-tech industry is used as measurement index of industrial structure.
4.3. Econometric Model
The panel data model mainly includes the pool OLS model, the fixed effect model and the random effect model. Due to the time of sample data, the section unit is short, changes of parameters are mainly focused on cross section, and the first decision is to choose variable intercept model. Specific to the selection of the fixed effect model or the random effect model, it tests by Lagrange Multipliers and test results shows that the fixed effects model should be adopted. Therefore, this paper selected the fixed effect model to carry out empirical analysis, and the concrete form of the model are as follows:
is the variable Intercept, reflects the individual differences between the regions.
reflects the corresponding impact on sustainable development.
is the random error term.
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
are sustainable development, scientific and technological personnel, popularization of science and technology, labor education, regional total funding of science and technology, government financial support, enterprise research and development enthusiasm, economic level, infrastructure construction, industrial structure respectively. To reduce the heteroscedasticity and serial correlation, we use Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) estimation model.