The Empirical Study of Club Convergence of Innovation Capacity in Chinese Regions

Borrowing ideas from the theory of regional economic convergence, based on the parametric and nonparametric methods, the convergence or disconvergence and the club convergence or club disconvergence of innovation capacity in Chinese regions are studied. The innovation capacity is indexed by the patent applications per ten thousand of the scientist and engineer in each region; the empirical results show that there is conditional convergence of innovation capacity in Chinese regions. The results of the threshold regression model with panel data show that there exist two kinds of club convergence. At the same time, the s-gini index of regional innovation capacity in the inside of the clubs and the results of classical club convergence panel data model and nonparametric model show that there are truly two kinds of club convergence of innovation capacity in Chinese regions.