Impacts of financial agglomeration on technological innovation: a spatial and nonlinear perspective

ABSTRACT

High-quality development is the inevitable choice for overcoming structural problems and resource bottlenecks and achieving sustainable development after more than three decades of rapid growth in China. Finance-driven technological innovation is an effective way to realise high-quality development. Working with a data set that includes 41 cities in China’s Yangtze River Delta, we used a panel threshold model and the spatial Durbin model to empirically analyse the impact of financial agglomeration on technological innovation. Our results indicate that the promoting effect of financial agglomeration on technological innovation increases with an improvement in the financial agglomeration level. Financial agglomeration has an inverted U-shaped spatial spillover effect on technological innovation. That is, moderate financial agglomeration will promote technological innovation in their neighbourhood, while excessive financial agglomeration will inhibit it. The government should fully utilise the radiating and dispersing functions of financial and innovation centres to rationally allocate resources and narrow gaps between regions.

KEYWORDS:

• Financial agglomeration
• technological innovation
• panel threshold model
• spatial Durbin model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant numbers 2019B34214, B200207034); Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project of Anhui Province [grant number SK2020A0015].

Notes on contributors

Yinyin Wen

Yinyin Wen serves as a faculty member at Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu, China. She is studying for a doctorate in business administration at Hohai University. Her current research interest includes regional economics, environmental economics, and technological innovation.

Min Zhao

Min Zhao is a professor at Hohai University’s Business School, Nanjing, China. He has co-authored several articles in various journals. He has been involved as an expert in numerous funded projects in the field of technological economics and regional economics.

Lilin Zheng

Lilin Zheng is a professor at Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu, China. She holds a PhD in Industrial Economics from Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China. She has authored one book and several articles in various journals. Her research focuses on environmental economics and industrial economics.

Yejun Yang

Yejun Yang holds a PhD in Statistics in Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China. He serves as a faculty member at Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu, China. His research interest includes statistics, finance and bank.

Xinye Yang

Xinye Yang is studying for a master’s degree in Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University, Cardiff, England. His research focuses on financial engineering, computer simulation and regional economics. He is good at software operation and visual analysis.