Determinants of Provincial Government Attention to Innovation: Evidence from China

Existing literature overemphasizes innovation outputs while neglecting provincial government innovation attention and its spatial interdependence. This study constructs the Provincial Innovation-Driven Index (PIDI) via textual analysis of 31 Chinese provinces’ 2002–2024 government work reports and employs three fixed-effects models to explore determinants of government innovation attention. Key findings: Short-term economic growth crowds out innovation attention; industrial agglomeration and higher education human capital significantly boost it, while weak intellectual property protection undermines it. Notably, economic linkages (via industrial structure similarity) drive stronger spatial spillovers of innovation attention than geographic proximity. This research contributes by operationalizing innovation attention with PIDI, revealing dual drivers of attention, and quantifying spatial transmission channels, offering theoretical insights and targeted policy implications for regional innovation governance.