COLLEGE EXPANSION, TRADE, AND INNOVATION: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA
研究中国1999年大学扩招对制造业企业出口和创新选择的影响，发现扩招解释了2003-2018年间中国制造业研发强度增长的72%，并促进了出口技能升级。
Abstract China has expanded the yearly quota on newly admitted college students by more than seven times since 1999. How did this massive education expansion affect firms' export and innovation choices? I document that after this expansion impacted the labor market, manufacturing firms' innovation increased considerably, especially among exporting firms, accompanied by sizable skill upgrading of exports. I then develop a multi‐industry spatial equilibrium model, featuring skill intensity differences across industries and heterogeneous firms' innovation and export choices. Quantitatively, the college expansion explained 72% of increases in China's manufacturing research and development (R&D) intensity between 2003 and 2018 and also triggered export skill upgrading.