Do Exporting Firms in the People’s Republic of China Innovate?

21 Pages Posted: 4 Jul 2012

Date Written: July 4, 2012

Abstract

This paper assesses factors driving firm-level export performance in Asia’s super exporter - The People’s Republic of China (PRC). While early studies suggested that innovation was important, there has been little research on opening up the black box of technology at firm-level in the PRC, the author undertakes econometric analysis of innovation, learning, and exporting in automobiles and electronics firms in the PRC using a large-scale dataset to identify the most appropriate innovation proxy. Drawing on recent literature on innovation and learning in developing countries, it tests two alternative proxies: (i) a technology index (TI) to capture a variety of minor activities involved in using imported technologies efficiently; and (ii) the research and development (R&D)-to-sales ratio, which represents formal technological efforts to create new products and processes, often at world frontiers.

Keywords: prc, innovation, automobiles, electronics

JEL Classification: F23, O31, O32, L63, O57

Suggested Citation

Wignaraja, Ganeshan, Do Exporting Firms in the People’s Republic of China Innovate? (July 4, 2012). ADBI Working Paper No. 365, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2100338 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2100338

Ganeshan Wignaraja (Contact Author)

Asian Development Bank Institute ( email )

Kasumigaseki Building 8F 3-2-5
Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo, 100-6008
Japan

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