DEA based analysis of local financial S&T input and relative efficiency of S&T output in China

Funds on S&T activities in China are increasing fast recent years. In 2004, total disbursement for S&T activities amounted to 367.7 billion Yuan, the R&D funds reached 184.3 billion Yuan; among which, government appropriated S&T funds increased from 43.86 billion Yuan in 1998 to 116 billion Yuan in 2004. However, the S&T competitiveness of China only ranks number 24 globally, is same as India, lower than South Korea, and greatly. lags behind developed countries such as US, Japan according to IMD's World Competitiveness Yearbook (2004). This paper evaluates the relatively technical efficiency and aggregate technical and scale efficiency of science and technology inputs of 30 provincial regions in China using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The results show that 11 regions are technical efficiency in S&T input that they have fully exploited the input resource; and 10 regions are technical efficiency and operate at most productive scale, including both regions from developed eastern and less developed western areas. In addition, for 19 regions that are technical inefficiency and operating at increasing return to scale, adjustment in input enables them to reach aggregate technical and scale efficiency.