A Study on Relation Mechanism of Patent Innovation and Regional Economic Growth of China's 31 Provinces

Employing methods of spatial autocorrelation, spatial lag model and spatial error model of spatial econometrics, and using data of the patent granted including inventions, utility models and designs and economic growth of China's 31 provinces in 2004,the econometric relationship between the patent innovation and regional economic growth is analyzed. The results show that on the one hand, there is spatial dependence for patent activity and its component, patent innovation in China's 31 provinces tends to cluster in geographical space, but on the other hand, only invention and utility model innovation has spillovers effects and the innovation surpasses the geographical boundary and spillover to neighboring regions. The positive results reveal that in the relative study of the innovations of academic and empirical studies and in the policy making process, spatial dependence and spillovers effects of regions should be considered.