Uncovering the Relationship between FDI, Human Capital and Technological Progress in Chinese High-technology Industries

Using a panel dataset for 28 sub-industries from 5 Chinese industries from 1995 to 2006, this paper examines the impact of human capital, R&D expenditure and FDI spillover on the productivity improvement of Chinese high-technology industries. The whole industry sample results suggest that human capital promotes total factor productivity, technical change and technical efficiency change, but that FDI lowers all of these factors in Chinese high-technology industry. When we distinguish between types of ownership structure in the industries, we find that human capital improves technical change but lowers technical efficiency change, whereas FDI only improves technical efficiency change in state-owned and state-controlled enterprises but reduces technical change in state-owned and state-controlled enterprises and joint ventures.