Ren Fei
In the context of the downward trend of global macroeconomic growth, and the continuous rise of trade frictions and geopolitical conflicts, the dynamic evolution of regional integration can provide support for sustainable development from the supply side. Eliminating unnatural barriers between regions, forging markets with lower transaction costs, and improving the efficiency of economic operations through synergies are important paths for China to achieve high-quality economic growth and get rid of the middle-income trap. The process of regional integration will promote the upgrading of the industrial chain and the redistribution of production factors, further exerting the comparative advantages of various regions. This research analyzes how innovation factors affect economic growth from the perspective of regional integration, verifies the cross-regional spillover effects of innovation input in the process of regional integration through empirical analysis, and discusses the direct and indirect effects of innovation spillovers on economic growth. Finally, based on innovation-driven regional integration and economic growth, we put forward suggestions.
1. Innovation Drives the Development Trend of Regional Integration
Regional integration can overcome the constraint of geographical space and administrative barriers, promote the free flow of production factors, and form a resultant force through the specialized division of labor among regions. The scarcity of innovation resources endows regional integration with a strong dominating ability of the value chain. Constructing and optimizing regional innovation system and realizing regional collaborative innovation should be the forerunner and leading force of promoting regional integration. While strengthening the interaction between regions, it is necessary to form a collaborative innovation model with enterprises, universities and scientific research institutions as the core， and governments and financial institutions as the support. Relying on technological innovation, deepening inter-regional cooperation, realizing the free flow of innovation elements and sharing resources, and forming a regional system of collaborative innovation have become the driving force and guarantee of sustainable economic and social development.
(1) Interregional linkage of innovation inputs.
We define innovation as exploratory and application activities carried out by enterprises, universities, and various research institutions, including two aspects of knowledge and technology. Innovation includes acquiring new knowledge and applying knowledge creatively, which aims to guide the economy theoretically. It also involves the substantive improvement and practical application of technology, aiming at improving the quality of products and services provided.
Based on the data of provincial R&D investment in China from 2000 to 2014, the innovation-driven regional integration process is gradually deepened, and the mechanism of collaborative innovation is steadily improved.
We use the Moran Indicator, a popular Indicator, to visually show the interregional interaction. Measuring innovation by R&D investment, the following figure shows the Moran Indicator of R&D investment in 31 provincial-level administrative regions in China. With spatial adjacency as the weight, the closer the value is to 1, the higher the spatial correlation is. It can be seen from Figure 1 that regional correlation showed a significant upward trend from 2000 to 2014, which indicates that China's innovation-driven regional integration process is gradually deepening and the mechanism of collaborative innovation is gradually improving.
