Empirical Study on Contribution of Technical Innovation to Economic Growth in Eastern China

By using Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) method and adopting some empirical data of invention patents application quantity and high5 technology industries added value, this paper comprehensively analyzes and compares contributions of technical innovation to economic growth of each region. These applied data come from some large-and-middle-scaled enterprises during the period from 2000 to 2005 of four regions in eastern China, namely, the Area Surrounding Bohai, Northeast Old Industry Base, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta. The results indicate that Northeast Old Industry Base has the highest synthetic correlation degree between invention patents application quantity and high technology industrial added value, and Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta are secondary to it, and the Area Surrounding Bohai has the lowest synthetic correlation degree. Hereby we can Conclude that the contribution of technical innovation to economic growth in the Area Surrounding Bohai is apparently lower than the other regions in eastern China; technical innovation in Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta have comparatively stronger contribution to economic growth; the correlation between technical innovation and economic growth in Northeast Old Industry Base also seems comparatively stronger. This article further explains the generation of the above phenomena.