The Impact of Higher Education and Human Capital Quality on “Local-Neighborhood” Economic Growth

Based on China’s provincial panel data from 1990 to 2017 and the improved Lucas, Nelson & Phelps model, the Spatial Dubin Model is used to test the spatial effects of higher education and human capital quality. The results showed that high-level human capital, characterized by higher education and urban labor income index, indirectly promoted local economic growth through technological innovation. There was also a “local-neighborhood” synergy effect. The neighborhood effect was manifested in that it affected the economic development of neighbors by promoting technological catch-up. After considering the quality factor, both the local and neighborhood effects were enhanced. From a regional perspective, higher education in the Yangtze River Delta, where the level of economic development is relatively high, was manifested as a spatial spillover effect of technological innovation and the neighborhood effect in the northeastern Bohai Rim and the Pearl River Delta was manifested as a technological catch-up.