Chia Wai Mun: Universities play an important role in generating externalities that foster innovations and contribute to economic growth. In this paper, the authors provide empirical evidence using a data set of 239 Chinese cities from 2004 and 2016. They show that (1) the number of university faculty are positively correlated with the number of patents, the number of enterprises and economic growth; (2) the number of college students has a similar impact, but it requires longer time to exert impacts; and (3) the role of university faculty is most pronounced in agricultural and manufacturing sectors but lowest in the financial sector. While the paper presents some interesting findings, some specific comments are made regarding the conceptual framework, model specification, identification, and interpretation, along with some minor suggestions.
First, in the Introduction, readers may benefit from a systematic review of Chinese college reforms, including key developmental stages and related policies...