regions, which bring OUs the greater chance of absorbing the positive externality of
technical progress. The other is that, compared with central or western 211Us, most
of OUs are located in the developed provinces such as Guangdong and Shandong,
they can easily get more funds and other resources from local governments, which
highly increases their changes of recruiting outstand scholars from both home and
abroad, as well as purchasing advanced instrument and equipment. Both explana-
tions can account for the stronger growth effect of NEAM disciplines in OUs.
Second, most groups have relatively low SEC indexes. Among eastern, central
and western 211Us, only the central 211Us are in the status of improvement, with
an average annual SEC growth rate of 2.4%. The SEC indexes of central and
western 211Us are annually reduced by 0.2 and 0.7% respectively. Inside the
eastern 211Us, the SEC index of JUs is improved slightly, with the annual
improvement rate of merely 0.1%, while the SEC indexes of SHZUs and OUs are
decreased by 0.6 and 0.2% respectively. To some extent, this reminds us that both
universities and higher education administrations should pay more attention to the
Fig. 5.10 Annual changes of decomposition indexes by region (NEAM)
5.3 Differences and Trends on 211Us’Research Productivity by Location 235