Advances in Management and Applied Economics

The Impact of the Upgrading of High-tech Zones on the Total Factor Productivity of Enterprises: Evidence from Guasi-natural Experiments

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• Abstract

  High-tech Zones are widely regarded as an effective mechanism to promote innovation and development of industrial clusters and new ventures. As a change in the external institutional environment, the upgrading of Provincial High-tech Zones promotes the ‘metabolism’ of enterprises in the High-tech Zones. This paper regards the upgrading of Provincial High-tech Zones as an external policy impact, constructs a quasi-natural experiment to evaluate the micro-policy effect of upgrading the Provincial High-tech Zones to the National High-tech Zones. Based on the data of enterprises in High-tech zones from 2005 to 2014, this paper uses Propensity Score Matching and Difference-in-Difference methods to analyze the impact of the upgrading of Provincial High-tech Zones on the total factor productivity of enterprises and explores the mechanism of action between the two through the mediation effect model. The results show that the upgrading of Provincial High-tech Zones distorted the total factor productivity of enterprises. Besides, compared with state-owned enterprises, the upgrading of Provincial High-tech Zones has a greater impact on the total factor productivity of non-state-owned enterprises. From the perspective of the intensity of government intervention, the higher the intensity of local government intervention, the greater the distortion effect. Further analysis shows that this distortion effect comes from adverse selection and moral hazard caused by information asymmetry between government and enterprises. The research results of this paper provide a realistic basis for the development of enterprises located in the newly upgraded National High-tech Zones.  

  
  

  JEL classification numbers: D24 R58.

  Keywords: Upgrading of Provincial High-Tech Zones,Total Factor Productivity of Enterprises, Propensity Matching Score (PSM), Difference in Difference Method (DID).