Abstract Based on the provincial panel data of China’s high-tech industry from 2009 to 2016, this paper constructs a stochastic frontier approach model (SFA) to measure the innovation efficiency of high-tech industry. From the perspective of optimal R&D funding scale, this paper studies the non-linear impact of government R&D funding on innovation efficiency of high-tech industry and the impact of enterprise size on optimal R&D funding intensity. Then, the characteristics and interval distribution of the optimal R&D funding intensity in high-tech industry are analyzed. Finally, the efficiency losses caused by deviation from the optimal R&D funding intensity are measured. It is found that the impact of government R&D funding on innovation efficiency of high-tech industry can be illustrated as an inverted “U” curve, and the scale of enterprises will improve the optimal R&D funding intensity. At present, government R&D funding brings more “crowding-in effect”. The gap between R&D funding intensity and optimal R&D funding intensity in the eastern region is the largest, followed by the central region and the western region. The loss of innovation efficiency of the national high-tech industry has an upward trend, and there is a largest efficiency loss in the eastern region and the middle and western regions are relatively small.
REN Bao-xian,WANG Hong-qing. The Impact of Government R&D Funding on the Innovation Efficiency of High-tech Industry ——A Study from the Perspective of Optimal Scale. Economic Survey, 2019, 36(6): 095.
2019, Vol. 36 
