Human Capital, Technology Adoption and Firm Performance: Impacts of China's Higher Education Expansion in the Late 1990s (Human Capital, Technology, Firm Performance) Yi Che Lei Zhang1 March 2017 Abstract We exploit a policy-induced exogenous surge in China’s college-educated workforce that started in 2003 to identify the impact of human capital on productivity. Using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, we find that industries using more human-capital intensive technologies experienced a larger gain in total factor productivity after 2003 than they did in prior years. Exploring the pathways from human capital increases to TFP growth, we find that these industries also accelerated new technology adoption, as reflected in the importation of advanced capital goods, R&D expenditure, and capital intensity, as well as employment of more highly skilled individuals. The productivity gains were weaker for domestic private firms than for foreign-owned firms. Key words: human capital; technology adoption; total factor productivity; higher education expansion; China JEL Code: I25; J24; O15; O33 1 Corresponding author: Lei Zhang, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai 200030, China. Email:
[email protected]. This paper benefits from early discussions with Lixin Colin Xu. We thank Alan Auerbach, Stacey Chen, William Dougan, Eric Hanushek, Christos Makridis, Hao Shi, Robert Willis, and seminar participants at Fudan University, Peking University, Renmin University of China, NEUDC, SOLE, and WEAI for helpful comments and suggestions and Ye Peng, Zhaoneng Yuan, Zhicheng Zhang, and Jing Zhao for valuable research assistance. Part of the work was completed when Lei Zhang was visiting the Robert D.