Technological capabilities and growth: A study of economic convergence among Chinese prefectures

The paper focuses on the role of technological capabilities in pushing regional catch-up in China. A leading force behind its fast economic growth has been the government action in reforming rules and institutions and supporting structural change in the long run. The local clustering process of technological capabilities represents an important piece in this strategy. The regional endowment of technological capabilities is approached by the geographical distribution of innovation activities among prefectures. The analysis aims to verify if there is convergence among the prefectural income levels and technological capabilities positively affect the intra-national catching-up process. Accordingly, this contribution presents a growth convergence estimation model that includes four indexes for innovation systems already adopted in literature. Indicators refer to the information about Chinese patent applications at EPO in the period 1996–2010 (OECD REGPAT and Citations databases, January 2014). In order to fit the research questions, patent data have been restricted, re-organized and originally regionalized by the authors running a semantic search of prefectures’ names in the “address” field associated to each Chinese inventor. Main results show that an absolute convergence process already started, although disparities decline slowly, and the accumulation of technological capabilities can foster this dynamic.