Ming Lu, Shanghai Jiaotong University: In recent years, China has made great progress in science and technology development. Whether this is because of the powerful state is an ongoing public dispute in China. This paper is timely and thought-provoking and provides evidence using data from China for the dispute. More generally, I hope those who are interested in the role of the state in economic development by industrial policies or any other policy tools will read this paper. This is the background I'd like to add to this paper.
This paper finds that the effects of national science and technology programs may have been over-estimated. After using a matching difference-in-differences method, the effects of the programs become insignificant. This means the effects are largely because of selection, which is usually known as “picking the winner.” In other words, even without the resources given by the government, the better firms should...