Abstract

In 2003, China's outward foreign direct investment（OFDI）began to enter a period of rapid development. In 2015, China became the second economy of OFDI in the world, and initially established its international standing of OFDI in power. With the rapid development of OFDI, the difference of OFDI among regions in China became very significant and the regional imbalance of OFDI is very prominent. Therefore, in this article, based on the difference of OFDI among regions in China as research object, with theoretical and empirical research method, it has important theoretical and practical value studying the convergence, influencing factors and spillover effect on difference of OFDI among regions in China.

Based on the international standing, industry selection, geographical distribution and regional difference, this article analyzed the development of OFDI. Results showed that, compared with the United States, Japan, France and Hongkong, there was still not a small gap of OFDI between China and international investment powers. OFDI in China mainly concentrates on the traditional industry, and the proportion of high-tech industry is very small. In recent years, the location selection diversification trend of China's OFDI has been growing, but still highly concentrated in a few other countries and regions, such as Hongkong, Channel Islands and Cayman Islands. The state owned enterprises are the main investment subjects of China's OFDI, and the private enterprises as the representative of the non-public enterprises have a small investment share. It reflects the feature that government leads China's OFDI is significant. At the same time, the different feature of China's regional OFDI is very significant.

In this article, by building the system of statistical indicators, the difference of China's OFDI among regions in China was measured. Based on measure of the regional share, HHI Index, diversity index, evenness index, Maximum-minimum Ratio Index and Gini Index, in recent years the regional difference of OFDI in China is decreased, but the regional imbalance has been still very prominent. Study on overall difference index showed the relative difference among regions in China's OFDI gradually reduced, but the absolute gap was still widening. Based on the Theil coefficient analysis, the internal difference in eastern and middle areas of China's OFDI has been showing a gradually decreasing trend since 2003, but smaller in central area. Based on the research of entropy, since 2003, the cities with higher performance of China's OFDI have gradually increased.

It is worthy of our further study on the dynamic evolution law of the difference of OFDI among regions in China. In this article, by using the provincial panel data model, it was empirically studied on the dynamic evolution laws and development trends of difference of OFDI among regions in China. The results showed OFDI in China and three big clubs presented the dynamic evolution laws of general convergence and local scattered. From the convergence, except for a few years, the national level, the East club and Middle club had convergence, while the Western Club tended to be divergent. Regarding the absolute convergence, OFDI of national level, Middle club and East club appeared the development trend of absolute convergence, while the western region did not appear absolute convergence. With controled industrialization variables, economic development level and per capita FDI, there was conditional convergence in national and three big clubs.

According to some theories of new institutional economics, system and OFDI among different regions in China have a certain correlation. Based on the existing literature and the economic system and legal system of the home country, the influential factors of OFDI difference among regions in China were empirically studied in this article. Research results showed that, from a national sample, the level of the market and the government management played a role in the promotion on OFDI and had an inhibitory effect on intellectual property protection. In the eastern region in China, the level of the market and the intellectual property protection on OFDI respectively played a promoting and inhibiting role. In the central region, the level of the market played a promoting role on OFDI. In the western region, the level of market and the degree of opening to the outside world played a promoting role on OFDI. The control variables of human capital promoted OFDI in China and in the central region.

One of the important purposes of OFDI from developing countries is to make full use of reverse technology spillover effect to promote technological innovation. Based on the most popular CH Model and LP Model among international spillover effect research, by building international technology spillover model of R&D, this article contained major international technology spillover channels in the same analysis framework and comparatively studied OFDI and other major international technology spillover channel effects on technology innovation in China. Overall, the reverse technology spillover effect of OFDI on technology innovation in China was lower than the promotion OFDI on the international trade. Regional difference existed in the technology spillover effect of FDI in China, and also related to the innovation level of technology itself. However overall, the technology spillover effect of OFDI was not significant in most regions in China, which showed that in recent years the strategy of the market for technology executed in China had not achieved the desired goal.

With some theories of spatial econometrics and the research methods of model driven and data driven, this article adopted the spatial correlation into the analysis system and built the provincial panel spatial econometrics data panel to empirically tested spatial spillover effects of OFDI among regions in China. The results showed that OFDI in regions of China had a significant positive spatial correlation by detecting Moran Index and there was a phenomenon of spatial concentration. With the selection of the Spatial Lag Model（SLM）and Spatial Error Model（SEM）, the spatial effect of OFDI among regions in China showed up as the spatial spillover effects. In the double fixed model of panel SLM, the level of economic development, the level of industrialization, per capita foreign trade, per capita FDI and human capital played a significant role in promoting OFDI among regions in China.

Finally, with the objective situation and existing main problems of OFDI among regions in China, policy suggestions were put forward to promote regional balanced development of China's OFDI.

Keywords: Outward Foreign Direct Investment（OFDI）; Regional Difference; Spillover Effect