The Effect of Technical Innovation on Producer Services Industry Development in China: Evidence from Fujian Province*

The effect of technological innovation on the high-quality development of the producer services industry depends on whether or not technical innovation efficiency plays a key role. This study looks at the impact of technological innovation and financial technology (fintech) on the development of high-quality producer services in Fujian Province from 2010 to 2019. The efficiency of technological innovation is measured using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Malmquist productivity index. The mean overall innovation efficiency score is 0.639, meaning that Fujian accounts for 36.1% of resource utilization inefficiencies and that there are significant differences in technological innovation efficiency between cities. The findings show that high-quality producer services industries benefited from innovation efficiency, but that the influence of technological innovation efficiency is insignificant. This demonstrates that financial innovation has not been able to completely enhance the development level of the producer services industry. This may be due to the unreasonable output structure of technological innovation and the low industrial transformation rate of technological achievements. This study advocates that the R&D fund allocation structure be optimized. That technological innovation can improve the high-quality development of the producer services industry is a consensus within the academic community.