大学知识溢出与科技经费配置：“顶天”与“立地”的权衡

大学作为知识的生产者和传播者，对企业有知识溢出效应，能促进企业创新并带动区域经济发展。通过一个简洁的量化空间经济学模型，从微观层面实证检验中国大学对工业企业创新的知识溢出效应，发现大学的知识溢出效应具有很强的异质性：高水平的研究型大学具有更强的知识溢出能力，高技术行业与大企业从大学的知识溢出中受益更多。反事实研究表明，保持中国现有大学的空间布局不变，更为均衡的科技经费配置能改善大学对企业的知识溢出效应，最多可带来社会总福利1.3个百分点的提升。

University Knowledge Spillover and Research Fund Allocation: A Balance Between Funding for Frontier Research and Funding for Regional Development

Universities, as the producer and disseminator of knowledge, have knowledge spillover effects on enterprises, promoting enterprise innovation and regional economic development. We established a concise quantitative spatial economic model to explain the spillover effects of universities on enterprise innovation and its transmission mechanism. We then tried to establish a welfare analysis framework in order to explore the social welfare implications of the university research funds allocated by the central government. Based on the theoretical model, we empirically tested the knowledge spillover effects and its heterogeneity of Chinese universities on industrial enterprise innovation at the micro level. In light of the theoretical model and empirical results, we further calibrated the parameters, and conducted a counterfactual analysis on the allocation of university research funds so as to discuss the social welfare effects of university knowledge spillover effects and possible optimal allocation schemes of university research funds. The research includes three main aspects as follows.First, this research, by introducing university knowledge spillover into the quantitative spatial economic model, described the micro-region-macro transmission mechanism which follows the sequence of university fund investment, enterprise innovation, regional development and social welfare. Our model also creatively abstracted the issue of balance between equity and efficiency faced by China as a large developing country in the allocation of research funds. Should the Chinese central government invest only in a few universities to help them develop into world-class universities to enhance China’s cutting-edge science and technology, or allocate research funds in a more balanced way to expand knowledge spillovers for regional coordinated development? Our theoretical model reveals that, in order to maximize social welfare, the central government should strike a balance between supporting some universities to catch up with and surpass world-class universities and coordinating regional development.Second, based on the theoretical model, the research deduced a structural econometric model and conducted an empirical analysis on Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database and University Science and Technology Statistics Collection. Therefore, our empirical research has expanded the scope and scale of relevant research to a greater degree. This paper is not only the first to study the knowledge spillover effects between all industrial enterprises and all undergraduate universities, but also makes a point-to-point calculation of the spatial distance and spatial spillover effect indexes of universities and enterprises with the use of Baidu Map API at the micro level, finally identifying the knowledge spillover effects of all undergraduate universities on industrial enterprises. The empirical research has not only proved that university knowledge spillover can significantly promote enterprise innovation, but also discovered that the knowledge spillover effects of universities are highly heterogeneous: the knowledge spillover effects of universities are highly correlated with their research funds; high-level research-oriented universities have stronger capacity of knowledge spillover, and high-tech industries and large enterprises benefit more from knowledge spillovers from universities.Finally, according to the results of empirical regression and existing research, the parameters were substituted into the general equilibrium model for calibration. Counterfactual analysis was then conducted based on the welfare analysis framework of the calibration model. The results have showed that there is a certain efficiency loss in the current allocation scheme of research funds which is more inclined to the eastern regions, and its adjustment can raise social welfare up to 1.3 percentage points.In summary, our research has, on the one hand, theoretically expounded the balance between catching up with the world-class universities to occupy the sci-tech height and expanding knowledge spillover for regional coordinated development. This has provided a theoretical basis for the central government when optimizing the allocation of university research funds. On the other hand, with the micro data of universities and enterprises, the research has effectively identified the spillover effects of university knowledge and its heterogeneity, and then evaluated the welfare differences of various fund allocation schemes, so as to provide realistic basis and data support for the optimal allocation of research funds in China’s higher education.