Global spatial economic interaction: knowledge spillover or technical diffusion?

Two sources of economic interaction are knowledge spillover and technical diffusion. This paper proposes a structural model with spatial effect in knowledge spillover and technical diffusion and empirically estimates the sources of economic interaction. The empirical results demonstrate that economic interaction mainly comes from knowledge spillover, and the effect of technical diffusion is weak. These results appeal for special attention to be paid to enhancing the effect of technical diffusion on long-term economic growth. Moreover, the knowledge spillover effect within China is only slightly larger than that in the global setting, implying existence of barriers, particularly institutional impediments, to economic interaction in China. The findings of this paper strongly call for the removal of China's hukou system and local protectionism, which restrict factor mobility across space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]