Abstract: Current study has focused on the loss of total factor productivity caused by the misallocation of production factors, but generally ignores the misallocation of innovation factors such as R&D personnel and R&D capital, and the loss of innovation efficiency due to differences in the factor quality and input structure. This paper introduces the classification of factors into the framework of the spatial misallocation, and selects the provincial panel data to measure the misallocation and the loss of innovation efficiency. The results show that the spatial misallocation of innovation factors is serious and has severely obstructed the innovation efficiency in China. Mitigating the misallocation of innovation factors will promote an average annual increase of 0.7% in innovation efficiency. Furthermore, there exist significant differences in the misallocation and the resulting efficiency losses of various innovation factors. The misallocation of R&D capital leads to greater efficiency losses. Compared with basic research and applied research, the R&D capital of experimental development is more deeply misallocated and has a greater impact on innovation efficiency. Meanwhile, low-and medium-skilled labor is more likely to be misallocated. Therefore, in order to improve the innovation efficiency in China, the government should take regional differences and element types as important considerations for the rational allocation of innovation resources.

Key words: innovation factors, spatial misallocation, innovation efficiency, R&D personnel, R&D capital