Threshold Effects of Reverse Technology Seeking ODI and Technology Improvement under the Informational Development Level —Empirical Analysis of Panel Data in 20 Countries and Regions

Based on panel data in 20 countries or regions from 2006 to 2011,the paper studied the mechanism of how informational development level influenced the ODI reverse spillover. Both foreign direct investment technology seeking(SFDI)and outward direct investment reverse technology seeking(SODI)crossed with trade openness were introduced. The threshold models were constructed to analyze the relationship between the SODI spillover and informational development level,which used information development index(IDI)and information catch difficulty coefficient(ICDC)as the threshold variables. The empirical results supported that research and development spending was the most important factor in improving regional technology development. Second,there were thresholds between the SODI spillover and technology development based on informational development level. Third,outward direct investment reverse technology seeking(SODI)spillover had apparently restricted the improvement of technologies,and decreased with the unceasing development of the information level. However,it came to the weakest when ICDC was greater than 0.307 0 and the information development level was higher than 4.130 0.