Frontiers in Business, Economics and Management 
ISSN: 2766-824X | Vol. 9, No. 1, 2023 

 

267 

Research	on	the	Impact	of	the	"Three	Powers"	
Decentralization	Reform	Policy	on	the	Transformation	
of	Scientific	and	Technological	Achievements	in	
Universities:	A	Case	Study	of	Hubei	Province,	China	
Chao Zhang*, Yulu Liu 

Innovation management Postgraduate, School of Management, Xi’an Polytechnic University, Xi’an, Shaanxi,710048, China 
* Corresponding author: Zhang chao (Email: zcwyy1118@163.com) 

 

Abstract: The evaluation of the actual situation of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in Chinese 
universities by delegating the "three powers" to universities is of great significance for the formulation and improvement of 
policies for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in universities. The article is based on the composite 
control method and selects multiple provinces in China that have not implemented the "Three Powers Decentralization" policy 
in university reform pilot projects to simulate the situation where universities in Hubei Province in China have not implemented 
the policy. The comparison is made with the current "Three Powers Decentralization" policy to highlight the implementation 
effect of the "Three Powers Decentralization" policy in universities in Hubei Province in China. Research has found that the 
"three decentralization" reform has a significant promoting effect on the transformation of scientific and technological 
achievements in universities in Hubei Province. The implementation of the "three decentralization" reform in universities in 
Hubei Province has a certain degree of policy spillover effect, and has a significant promoting effect on the transformation level 
of scientific and technological achievements in the entire region. The transformation reform of scientific and technological 
achievements in universities under the principle of "delegating three powers" has a significant positive promoting effect on the 
output of scientific and technological achievements in universities in Hubei Province. Based on the research findings, 
corresponding policy recommendations have been provided for optimizing the transformation plan of scientific and technological 
achievements in various regions through the exploration of the reform plan in Hubei Province. 

Keywords: Decentralization of the "three powers", Transformation of scientific and technological achievements in universities, 
Policy effectiveness, Synthetic control method. 

 

1. Introduction 
As an important way of the transformation of advanced 

science and technology into real productive forces, the 
transformation of scientific and technological achievements 
is of great practical significance to China's scientific and 
technological innovation and the realization of breakthroughs 
in key core technologies[1]. As an important gathering place 
of scientific and technological resources, colleges and 
universities have a large number of high-level and 
sophisticated scientific and technological achievements, but 
they have long been faced with the problem of low 
transformation level of scientific and technological 
achievements. The reason is that there is an imbalance 
between scientific research subjects in the transformation of 
scientific and technological achievements in Chinese 
universities[2]And scientific and technological achievements 
and assets of the state-owned system constraints[3]scheduling 
problem. As a key policy measure to solve this problem, the 
property right reform of scientific and technological 
achievements in universities continuously deepens the system 
reform of scientific and technological achievements, and the 
impact on the transformation of scientific and technological 
achievements in universities is the key issue that has been 
discussed in the academic circles. 

As the core of the property rights of scientific and 
technological achievements, the reform of usufruct, disposal 
and use rights (hereinafter referred to as the "three rights") is 

the focus of the reform of the property rights of scientific and 
technological achievements in China. The main rights 
through three stages, the first stage is the national overall 
control stage (1985-2002), the "three rights" mainly belongs 
to the state control; the second stage is the state authorized 
universities and other scientific research institutions (2002-
2014), at this stage the state belongs some rights to scientific 
research units, some areas, but most areas are not completely 
delegated; the third stage is the state to the "three powers" 
(2014), during this stage, universities and other research 
institutes have the right to decide on scientific and 
technological achievements. 

Whether the "three rights" to the complete decentralization 
of colleges and universities to promote the transformation of 
scientific and technological achievements of colleges and 
universities, and what impact on the output and 
transformation of scientific and technological achievements, 
is the main research problem in this paper. As the key content 
of the reform of the transformation system of technological 
achievements in colleges and universities, the reform of 
"decentralization of the three powers" mostly adopts the 
effective discussion in the method of qualitative analysis, and 
there are few quantitative studies. Moreover, it is rare to 
explore the spillover effect of the decentralization of the 
"three rights" and the quantitative analysis of the impact on 
the output of scientific and technological achievements. 
Based on the above background, this paper explores the 
implementation effect of the policy of "three rights 



 

268 

decentralization" and the external indirect impact of the 
policy implementation through quantitative analysis of 
university scientific research and technology transaction data, 
so as to provide reference for decision-making for building a 
strong intellectual property country and an innovative country. 

2. Theoretical Analysis and Research 
Hypothesis 

The complete decentralization of the "three powers" has a 
significant effect on promoting the transformation of 
scientific and technological achievements in universities, 
mainly by breaking the institutional barriers and exerting the 
incentive effect. Specifically, delegating the right to use it can 
break the institutional barriers to the nationalization of 
scientific and technological achievements. Delegating the 
power of disposal can simplify the examination and approval 
process, and empower universities to independently decide 
the whereabouts of scientific and technological achievements. 
Delegate the right of income so that the transformation units 
or individuals can reasonably obtain the rights and interests 
of the transformation income, and improve the enthusiasm of 
the transformation. Before the complete decentralization of 
the "three rights", the scientific and technological 
achievements of universities had the attribute of state-owned 
assets, and the transformation procedures of the achievements 
of universities were complicated, the examination and 
approval was difficult, and the management was not 
flexible[4]The transformation of scientific and technological 
achievements in colleges and universities faces institutional 
obstacles, so that the enthusiasm of transformation is not high. 
The incentive effect is reflected in two levels: on the one hand, 
it is to mobilize the enthusiasm of the colleges and 
universities[5]On the other hand, it is to mobilize the 
enthusiasm of relevant researchers[6]. Delegating the "three 
rights" to universities and granting researchers the partial 
ownership of their scientific and technological achievements 
can more effectively and directly stimulate the enthusiasm of 
universities and related researchers to transform their 
scientific and technological achievements. Based on this 
assumption: 

H 1: The implementation of the policy of "decentralization 
of the three powers" has a significant positive effect on the 
transformation of scientific and technological achievements 
in universities. 

 The effect of scientific research innovation work is 
affected by the ownership reform of scientific research 
results[7], The effect is through two theories[8]Basic 
performance: First, the theory of intellectual property 
incentive innovation, that is, the reform of "decentralization 
of three rights" in universities gives relevant rights to 
inventors who can provide institutional incentives for their 
innovation[9]. By sharing the rights of universities and 
researchers, the balance between "employer doctrine" and 
"employee doctrine" can be realized, and the innovation 
enthusiasm of researchers should be stimulated[8]. The 
reform of "decentralization of three rights" promotes the 
resource sharing of different innovation bodies by reducing 
the constraints of joint property rights management, and 
stimulates the innovation enthusiasm of different subjects 
such as universities, research institutions and enterprises[10]. 
The second is the economic theory of property rights. The 
reform of "delegating three rights" of scientific and 
technological achievements in universities endows the 

principal value of scientific and technological innovation, 
improves the enthusiasm of innovation and reduces the 
transaction cost in the process of achievements 
transformation, and builds a good environment for scientific 
and technological innovation. To sum up, the reform of the 
transformation of scientific and technological achievements 
in the "decentralization of the three powers" will not reduce 
the enthusiasm of scientific research due to the conversion of 
scientific and some resources to the transformation of 
scientific and technological achievements, and the 
enthusiasm of some researchers will improve the scientific 
research activities. Based on this, this paper proposes the 
following assumptions: 

H 2: The implementation of the policy of "decentralization 
of the three powers" has a significant positive effect on the 
output of scientific and technological achievements in 
universities. 

 China has a large number of universities and research 
institutions, with a large amount of technology and 
knowledge. Therefore, Chinese enterprises, universities and 
research institutions are more inclined to establish industry-
university-research alliances[11]. The alliance of industry-
university-research institutes has promoted the generation of 
more industry-university-research collaborative innovation, 
which makes each cooperative unit closely connected. As the 
core component of industry-university-research alliance, 
universities will certainly have the diffusion effect of policy 
spillover on the change of relevant university policies, and 
then indirectly have a linkage impact on other units such as 
scientific research institutions. After the "three rights" are 
fully delegated to universities, scientific research institutions 
and other relevant units will not hold a wait-and-see attitude 
to a large extent. Due to the background of industry-
university-research cooperation in regional development, the 
decentralization policy of "three rights" to universities will 
have a diffusion effect on other institutions except the 
universities themselves, and then promote the positive 
promotion effect of the transformation of scientific and 
technological achievements in the whole region. Based on 
this, the following assumptions are made: 

H 3: The implementation of the policy of "decentralization 
of the three powers" has a significant positive spillover effect 
on the transformation of scientific and technological 
achievements. 

3. Model Setting and Data Description 

3.1. Model setting 
In order to evaluate the impact of the decentralization 

policy of "three rights" on the transformation performance of 
scientific and technological achievements in universities in 
different regions, the key is to find appropriate policy 
evaluation methods. At present, the widely used methods 
include dual difference (D ifference-in-Difference Method, 
DID), propensity score matching method (Propensity Score 
Matching, PSM) or the combined PSM-DID method. But 
these methods all have some limitations. The double 
difference method has strong subjectivity and randomness in 
the choice of reference group, and lacks strong persuasion. 
The propensity score matching method takes the panel data as 
individuals to analyze the panel data. The interleaving of 
individuals and years will bias the results[12]。 

To overcome the limitations of the above method, 



 

269 

Abadie[13]And proposed a new method, synthetic control 
method (Synthetic Control Methods, SCM). The basic idea of 
this method is to obtain the weighted average of each 
reference group to construct the "counterfactual" synthetic 
reference group of each policy intervention individual, and 
analyze the differences before and after the implementation 
of the policy, so as to judge the implementation effect of the 
policy. By Zhang Junyan et al[14], Liu Youjin et al[15], Liu 
Jiayan et al[16], Ding Junsong et al[17]Put forward and 
perfected in a series of problem research. The specific model 
is set as follows: 

T 1 T T If there is N + 1 region, region 1 will 
implement the policy of decentralization of scientific and 
technological achievements in the () period, while the other N 
regions will not implement it.Y Y  It represents the potential 
result of the university reform policy of "delegating three 
powers" in t, and the potential result of the university reform 
policy of "delegating three powers" in t, so the causal effect 
of region i by the policy intervention is as follows: 

 

τ Y Y , i 1, … , N 1, t 1, … , T       (1) 

 

Suppose that the observed transformation data of scientific 
and technological achievements in period t in region i is = + 
(1-) =+Y D Y D Y Y τ D ，D  

It represents the policy intervention status of region i in 
period t. If i receives policy intervention in phase t, the value 
is 1 and 0 without policy intervention. Assuming that the first 
region is subject to policy intervention after the period, and 
the other N regions are not subject to policy intervention, then 
the effect of t> policy intervention is as follows:T T  

 

τ Y Y Y Y                        (2) 
 

T Y Y  Since the first area was subject to policy 
intervention, the potential results were observed at t>, but no 
potential results without policy intervention were observed. 
Therefore, the need to predict the counterfactual results of 
region 1, the key results are represented in the following 
model:Y  

 

Y δ θ λ ε                                    (3) 

 

δ Z Where it represents the time fixed effect affecting the 
transformation of scientific and technological achievements 
in the region; the predictive variable indicating that region i is 
measurable and is not affected by the reform; an estimated 
parameter of the prediction variable; a common factor vector 
that cannot be observed and a coefficient vector; and a short-
term impact with a mean of 0 that cannot be observed in each 
region.θ λ μ ε  

N 1ω ω ω ω ω  By constructing the () -
dimensional weight vector W= (...,), satisfying 0, j=2,..., N + 
1, and +... + =1. The weight of each vector W represents a 
synthetic control combination of a specific region, so the 
variables of each reference region are weighted to obtain: 

 

∑ ω Y δ θ ∑ ω Z λ ∑ ω μ ∑ ω ε    (4) 

Assuming the presence of the weight vector (), so 
thatω∗ … ，ω∗  

 

∑ ω∗ Z Z                                             (5) 

 

And for t has:∀∈ T ，T  

 

∑ ω∗ Y Y                                         (6) 

 

∑ λ λ If it is a non-singular matrix[18]There are: 

 

Y

∑ ω∗ Y ∑ ω∗ ∑ λ ∑ λ λ Y λ ε
ε ∑ ω∗ ε ε =          (7) 

 

T t T Under general conditions, formula _ (7) 
approaches to 0. Therefore, the counterfactual results of the 
policy intervention region 1 can be expressed as = by the 
synthetic control group, so that the policy effect estimate of 
region 1 is:Y ∑ ω∗ Y  

 

τ Y ∑ ω∗ Y ，            (8) 

 

t ∈ T 1，T W∗τ W∗X 1X
NX X WW∗‖X X W‖ X X W V X X W m , 
Only by finding the weight vector that satisfies the condition, 
we can get the estimator of the policy intervention effect, and 
the author can determine the synthetic control vector through 
the approximate solution. Order is the (m) dimension feature 
vector of individuals before the decentralization policy 
intervention; it is the (m) dimension matrix before the policy 
intervention in other regions j. Determined by minimizing the 
distance between vs. The expression is the value of =. Where 
V is a (m) symmetric semizidefinite matrix. The choice of V 
will affect the mean square error. A badie, et al., determine the 
optimal matrix V by selecting the mean square error in 
advance, and then the optimal V is found, and then the weight 
matrix is brought into (8) to obtain the policy intervention 
effect.W∗W∗ 

3.2. Description of the selection of the data and 
the variables 

3.2.1. Sample selection 
First, select the time span. The use of the synthetic control 

method must meet the period before the study event to reach 
a certain scale, so that the accuracy of the synthetic control 
group to the experimental group can be satisfied. In this paper, 
the Interim Measures for Promoting the Transformation of 
Scientific and Technological Achievements of Universities 
and Institutes in Hubei Province at the end of 2013 selected 
the time span of samples from 2010-2020 (2020 is the time to 
obtain the latest data). Since the policy was issued in 
December 2013,2013-2013 was taken as the window period 
before the event, and 2015-2020 is the window period after 
the event. 

Second, the experimental and control groups were selected. 



 

270 

This paper aims to study the impact of the policy of "three 
rights" on the implementation of the transformation of 
scientific and technological achievements in Hubei Province. 
Hubei province is naturally the experimental group. As the 
lead in exploring the reform of scientific and technological 
achievements in universities with the "three rights", the 
reform of the "three powers" in Hubei province only targets 
the region where Hubei province is located. According to the 
principle of selecting the control group by the synthetic 
control method, the provinces that do not adopt this policy 

should be selected as the control group, so all other provinces 
in China meet this condition. Hubei province is a province 
with a medium level of development in China, so the control 
group should be selected with a similar level of development 
as the control group. Per capita GDP is an important indicator 
to measure the regional economic development level[19], 
Therefore, provinces similar to the per capita GDP of Hubei 
province in 2021 were selected as the control group. Due to 
the lack of data in some provinces, 15 provinces including 
Hunan were selected as control groups (see Table 1). 

 
Table 1. Selection of experimental group and control group provinces 

group quantity province 
experimental 

group 
One Hubei province 

control 
group 

14 
Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Shaanxi, Anhui, Hunan, Jiangxi, 

Liaoning, Shanxi, Sichuan, Henan, Hebei, Jilin 
 

3.2.2. Data source 
In this paper, the data of 31 provinces and cities in China 

from 2010 to 2020 were selected, and the five regions of 
Hainan Province, Tibet Autonomous Region, Ningxia Hui 
Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province and Xinjiang Uygur 
Autonomous Region with serious data loss were excluded. 
The five selected regions have obvious economic and regional 
differences from the other regions, so the deletion will not 
have a large impact on the analysis of the experimental 
regions. The remaining 24 provinces and municipalities 
except the experimental area were in the control group. 
Relevant data and materials are from the Statistical Data of 
Colleges and Universities, Science and Technology Statistics 
Yearbook of Colleges and Universities, Statistical Yearbook, 
Financial Yearbook, Statistical Yearbook of High-tech 
Industry compiled by the Department of Science and 
Technology of the Ministry of Education and Technology of 
the People's Republic of China. 

3.2.3. Variable description 
Description of university data variables. Existing scholars 

mainly measure the transformation of scientific and 
technological achievements in universities from two aspects: 
on the one hand, the number of scientific and technological 
achievements transferred, and on the other hand, the income 
of the transfer of scientific and technological achievements. 
Rosie et al[20]The transformation of scientific and 
technological achievements in colleges and universities is 
measured by the number of contracts signed and the actual 
income of technology transfer. Wu Yang et al[21]The 
transformation of scientific and technological achievements 
in universities is measured by the number of technology 
transfer contracts and the actual income of technology transfer. 
Zhong Wei et al[22]The transformation of scientific and 
technological achievements in universities is measured by the 
number of patents sold, the amount of patents sold and other 
technology transfer contracts and the actual income of 
transfer.K im[23], S ie gel, et al[24]The number of patent 
licenses and the patent license revenue are used to express the 
transformation of scientific and technological achievements. 
Comprehensive research of existing scholars with the number 

of scientific and technological achievements transfer situation 
and the transfer of scientific and technological achievements 
in colleges and universities to measure the transformation of 
scientific and technological achievements of colleges and 
universities, the number of scientific and technological 
achievements transfer with universities patent sale contract 
number, university technology transfer contract and other 
intellectual property transfer together to measure the number 
of other intellectual property transfer amount data is not 
released, so with the average annual patent and technology 
transfer contract to say the other intellectual property transfer 
income, scientific and technological achievements transfer 
income with the above several transfer amount of the sum 
results to measure. 

The measurement index of the output of scientific and 
technological achievements refers to Zhong Wei et al[22], He 
Bin et al[25]The research of scholars is expressed by the 
number of patent applications and grants. Refer to Wang Zhao 
Chen et al[26], He Bin et al[25]In the research of scholars, 
seven important indicators affecting the scientific and 
technological research and financial conditions of scientific 
and technological research activities, experimental, basic, 
applied research investment, application of R & D 
achievements and scientific and technological service 
projects are taken as predictive and control variables. The 
specific variable calculation method is shown in Table 2. 

(2) Description of provincial data variables. Universities 
and provincial units are different systems, so different 
indicators are used to measure the transformation of scientific 
and technological achievements. The transformation of 
scientific and technological achievements at the provincial 
level is measured by the sales revenue of new products and 
the technology market turnover. Considering the influencing 
factors of regional scientific research, six indicators of 
economic development level, level of opening to the outside 
world, higher education, government fiscal expenditure, 
science and technology loans of financial institutions and 
science and technology research and development 
environment were selected as prediction and control variables. 
The specific variables are shown in Table 3. 

 

 

 



 

271 

Table 2. Description of data variables of provincial universities 

type of 
variable 

Variable name measuring method symbol 

predictive 
variable 

The number of scientific and 
technological achievements 

transferred 

Number of patent sale contracts + number of technology 
transfer contracts + transfer of other intellectual property rights 

STC 

Income from the transfer of 
scientific and technological 

achievements 

Total amount of patent sale + total amount of technology 
transfer contract + total amount of other intellectual property 

expenses 
STI 

Output of scientific and 
technological achievements 

Number of patents authorized PSN 
Number of patent applications PST 

 
controlled 
variable 

Science and technology 
research and development 

manpower conditions 
Full-time equivalent total (person year) / T & r total (person) b1 

Technology and financial 
conditions 

Scientific research expenses (thousand yuan) / total funds 
(thousand yuan) 

b2 

Experimental development 
investment situation 

Funds allocated in the year of experimental development 
(thousand yuan) / personnel invested in the year of experimental 

development (thousand years) 
a1 

Investment in basic research 

Basic research research and development projects were 
allocated in the same year 

Funding (thousand yuan) / personnel invested in the same year 
(thousand years) 

a2 

Applied research input 
situation 

Applied basic research and development projects allocated in 
the same year (1,000 yuan) / personnel invested in applied basic 

research and development projects in the same year (one 
thousand people year) 

a3 

R & D achievement application 
and science and technology 

service projects 

Total allocation of R & D achievement application and science 
and technology service projects in the current year (1000 yuan) / 

R & D achievement application and science and technology 
service projects in the same year (1000 years) 

a4 

 
Table 3. Description of the provincial data variables 

type of 
variable 

Variable name measuring method symbol 

predictive 
variable 

Income generation from 
scientific and technological 

achievements 
Sales revenue from new products PSR 

Technology market 
transactions 

Technology market turnover TMI 

Predicted 
control 

variables 

Economic development level GDP rate of rise GDP 
Open to the outside world Total import and export volume / GDP OPEN 

higher education 
The average number of institutions of 

higher learning per 100,000 population 
EDU 

Government fiscal expenditure 
Fiscal science and technology 

expenditure / fiscal expenditure 
index1.1 

Technology loans from 
financial institutions 

Financial institution loans / GDP index1.2 

Science and technology 
research and development 

environment 

R & D personnel full-time equivalents 
/ total population 

index1.3 

 

4. Empirical Analysis 

4.1. Empirical results 
After using the synthetic control method, the results of the 

experimental and synthetic control provinces are shown 
below. The vertical dotted line represents the dividing line 
before and after the promulgation of the policy. Since the 
three experimental provinces selected all issued policies in 

December, the time lag of one year is taken as the actual 
implementation time point of the policy. 

4.1.1. The impact of "decentralization of the three 
powers" on the transformation of scientific and 
technological achievements in universities 

Transformation of scientific and technological 
achievements in colleges and universities in Hubei Province. 
As for the transformation of scientific and technological 
achievements in universities in Hubei Province, the time 



 

272 

change trend of STC before policy intervention is relatively 
close to that of the synthetic control provinces, so it shows 
that the synthetic control areas well fit the transfer number of 
scientific and technological achievements in universities and 
universities in Hubei Province. However, according to the 
observation in Figure 1 (b), the fitting effect of STI policy 
intervention in universities in Hubei Province was not ideal, 
but the results of STI showed an upward trend, indicating that 
the policy had a positive impact on the transformation income 
of scientific and technological achievements. Due to the 

unsatisfactory fitting effect, further analysis was needed to 
demonstrate the change of STI. Considering the lag of policy 
implementation, it can be seen from Figure 1 (a) that the STC 
on the solid line in the year after the policy intervention, 
indicating that policy intervention improves the number of 
scientific and technological achievements in universities in 
Hubei Province, so it is known that policy intervention 
improves the transformation of scientific and technological 
achievements in universities in Hubei Province. Thus 
verifying hypothesis 1. 

 

  
(a) Actual versus synthetic STC                (b) actual versus synthetic STI 

Figure 1. The effect of "decentralization of three rights" in universities on STC and STI in Hubei Province 
 

4.1.2. The impact of "decentralization of the three 
powers" on the output of scientific and 
technological achievements in universities 

The influence of the policy intervention of "three rights 
decentralization" in Hubei province on the output of scientific 
and technological achievements. The PST and PSN of Hubei 
Province and the corresponding synthetic control cities 
between 2010 and 2020 are shown in Figure 2 (a) (b), where 
the location of the vertical dotted line indicates the year of the 
policy intervention. Figure 2 (A) Synthesis of PST in Hubei 
Province on the left side of the dotted line Although the fitting 
effect of PST in real universities in Hubei Province tends to 
be the same, the change of PST in real universities in Hubei 

Province indicated by the solid line shows an increasing trend, 
and there is no negative impact on PST in Hubei Province due 
to the policy intervention. Figure 2 (b) The left side of the 
vertical dotted line well fits the change path before policy 
intervention in universities in Hubei Province. The trend of 
the solid line on the right side of the vertical dotted line was 
higher than the dotted line, indicating that there was no 
negative effect on PSN after policy intervention in Hubei 
Province. By analyzing the change trend of PST and PSN 
before and after the policy intervention in Hubei Province, it 
can be found that the policy intervention has no significant 
positive impact on the output of scientific and technological 
achievements of universities in Hubei Province, thus 
verifying hypothesis 2. 

 

  
(a) actual versus synthetic PST               (b) actual versus synthetic PSN 

Figure 2. The effect of "three rights decentralization" on PST and PSN in Hubei Province 
 
 
 



 

273 

 
 

4.1.3. The diffusion effect of the "decentralization of the 
three powers" policy 

To explore whether there is a spillover effect after the 
implementation of the policy, this paper conducts empirical 
exploration by exploring the overall transformation of 
scientific and technological achievements in the province 
after the intervention of the policy. The specific results are as 
follows: 

Transformation of scientific and technological 
achievements in Hubei Province. Figure 3 (a) shows the 
trading situation of scientific and technological achievements 
and technology market in Hubei province after policy 

intervention. Figure 3 (b) shows the comparison between the 
policy and after sales revenue intervention of new products 
representing scientific and technological achievements in 
Hubei Province. Policy intervention before synthetic region 
very good fit the real trend of Hubei, and TMI and PSR policy 
intervention after solid line above the dotted line, after the 
policy intervention of Hubei province's scientific and 
technological achievements have a positive effect, so to a 
certain extent, the universities "separation down" 
transformation of scientific and technological achievements 
policy "spillover" diffusion influence that promote the 
province's transformation of scientific and technological 
achievements, thus verify the hypothesis 3. 

 

  
(a) Actual versus synthetic TMI                 (b) actual versus synthetic PSR 

Figure 3. The effect of "decentralization" on TMI and PSR in Hubei province 
 

4.1.4. Analysis of the empirical results 
Analyanalyzes the substantial progress in the reform of the 

decentralization policy of "three powers" in universities in 
Hubei Province in 2013, mainly due to the following reasons: 
First, the ownership of rights and the "three rights" were 
clearly delegated to universities and the personnel 
transforming achievements, avoiding the obstacles of 
ambiguous rights or state-owned attributes. Second, we need 
to support the development of technology transfer institutions 
and technology contract registration institutions. Functional 
departments for the transformation of scientific and 
technological achievements at the provincial and university 
levels will be established, the examination and approval 
process will be simplified, and convenient and standardized 
transformation procedures will be established to improve the 
efficiency of the transformation of achievements. Third, 
clarify the income distribution of transformation personnel, 
stimulate the enthusiasm of scientific and technological 
personnel transformation. Fourth, reform the assessment, 
employment and professional title evaluation system of 
scientific and technological personnel, break the traditional 
assessment of only paper theory, bring the transformation of 
scientific and technological achievements into the assessment 
indicators, and encourage researchers to get close to the 
industry and the market. 

4.2. Robustness test and further analysis 
4.2.1. Robustness test 

Robustness test starts from the following aspects: 

(1) Placebo test. To verify the effectiveness of the empirical 
results, we verify that the differences in predictor variables 
before and after the policy intervention are due to the impact 
of the "three powers decentralization" policy rather than other 
unobserved extrinsic factors. Using the A badie[18]The 
proposed test is used to determine whether the other reference 
regions have the same situation. The idea of this method is to 
assume that all reference cities adopt the encouragement 
policy of "delegating the power of three rights" to encourage 
the transformation of scientific and technological 
achievements in universities at this time point, use synthetic 
control method to construct synthetic control objects for each 
reference area, and compare the policy effect of the 
experimental area with the policy effect of the reference area. 
If the policy effect gap between the two is obvious, it can 
prove that the experimental area policy can be effective. But 
this method must meet a premise is policy intervention before 
each reference area has a good fitting effect, namely the R 
MSPE value is reasonable, if the early fitting effect is bad 
even after the policy intervention variable has a big difference 
cannot prove that the policy in the region has a good effect, 
so according to the R MSPE value reasonable control 
screening test, here refer to Liu Jiayan[16]In the screening 
criteria, the regional R MSPE value and the experimental area 
gap more than twice the samples for selective screening. 

 



 

274 

 
(a) STC placebo test in Hubei University 

  
(b) TMI placebo test in Hubei Province   (c) PSR placebo test in Hubei Province 

Figure 3. Placebo test of each indicator in Hubei Province 
 

Figure 3 (a) - (c) shows the difference distribution plot after 
excluding the above outliers. The difference distribution of 
STC and TMI and PSR of Hubei province before and after the 
policy intervention were shown respectively. It can be found 
that the change gap between the experimental area and the 
control area before the policy intervention is not very large, 
but after the policy intervention, the gap between the 
experimental area and the control area began to widen. It 
shows that the policy of "decentralization of scientific and 
technological achievements in universities" has improved the 
transformation efficiency of scientific and technological 
achievements in universities in the areas where the policies 
are promulgated, and further promoted the overall 
transformation level of scientific and technological 
achievements in the areas with policy intervention. 

(2) Add the control variables. Three new predictive and 
control variables were added, and STC, TMI and PSR were 
synthesized in regression. Among them, the scale of scientific 
research in universities is measured by the number of projects 
applied by universities, the intensity of government support is 
measured by the proportion of government funds to the total 
scientific research funds, and the level of university-
enterprise cooperation is expressed by the funds entrusted by 
enterprises and institutions. The results after adding the new 
control variables were consistent with previous before, further 
verifying the robustness of the original results. 

4.2.2. Further analysis 
Because the synthetic control method is not very effective 

when using STC as a predictor variable, in order to estimate 
the impact of the decentralization policy intervention on STC 
in experimental areas, this paper uses the alternative method, 

the double differential method, as a remedy. The model is set 
as follows: 

 

Z α α Tαx α Year β Tαx Year ηX
δ γ ε                              (9) 

 

T   Specifically, Z is the variable that reflects the 
transformation of scientific and technological achievements, 
and is the policy variable of the decentralization of the three 
powers. The value of the experimental area is 1, and the value 
of the reference area is 0. Year is the year dummy variable 
with the value 0 before policy intervention and 1 after policy 
intervention.β  For the net effect of policy intervention on the 
transformation of scientific and technological achievements. 
X is the set of control variables, the individual fixed effect and 
the time fixed effect.δ γ  

Because the double difference method has subjective 
randomness in the selection of control group, which is easy to 
produce large errors, the whole sample except the 
experimental area is selected as the reference group. Table 4 
reports the estimated results of the double difference, and the 
coefficient of the cross term reflects the impact of the "three 
rights decentralization" policy intervention on STC in the 
experimental area. Column (1) and (2) is the result of Hubei 
Province, and column (1) reflects the estimated result without 
control for other influencing factors.(2) Columns are the 
estimated results of controlling for other influencing factors. 
The cross-term coefficient of both cases in Hubei province is 
positive, which reflects that the growth of STC in Hubei 
province is caused by the policy intervention of 



 

275 

"decentralization of three powers". It further verifies that the 
reform policy intervention of "decentralization of three 

powers" promotes the transformation of scientific and 
technological achievements in universities. 

 
Table 4. Impact of Policy Intervention on STC in Hubei Universities (double difference method) 

 (1) (2) 
cross term 725.0** 612.5* 

 (2.05) (1.75) 
Other control variables  control 

constant term -1951.3*** -1582.5*** 
 (-6.98) (-4.86) 

observed value 
𝑅  

275 
0.4968 

275 
0.5324 

Note: For the t-statistic in brackets, * and * * and * * * represent the significance levels of 10%, 5% and 1%, respectively. 
 

5. Conclusion 
In this paper in the theoretical analysis of the influence of 

"powers down" reform policy in colleges and universities on 
the basis of the transformation of scientific and technological 
achievements, using the Hubei "powers down" reform in 
2013, based on the national 31 provinces in 2010-2020 panel 
data, with the aid of the policy evaluation in the development 
of the emerging literature of synthetic control method, the 
empirical analysis of the "powers down" reform policy on the 
transformation of scientific and technological achievements 
in Hubei province and the output of scientific and 
technological achievements in colleges and universities. The 
study found that: (1) from the perspective of universities, the 
"decentralization of the three rights" has a promoting effect 
on the transformation of scientific and technological 
achievements in universities.(2) On the whole, the policy of 
"delegating the three powers" for universities has a policy 
diffusion effect and plays a driving role in the transformation 
of scientific and technological achievements in the whole 
region.(3) The encouragement of the transformation of 
scientific and technological achievements in universities does 
not occupy the resources of scientific and technological 
achievements in universities, and has no negative impact on 
the output of scientific and technological achievements in 
universities. 

This paper confirmed the "powers down" reform of the 
policy on the positive influence of scientific and technological 
achievements in colleges and universities, which in the 
system level for policy makers to strengthen the level of 
scientific and technological achievements, can get the 
following policy enlightenment: (1) to explore the university 
scientific and technological achievements "powers down" 
policy reform, further deepen the reform of scientific and 
technological achievements of property rights, orderly 
disposal, use right and other property rights to scientific 
research team or individual, break the bondage of public 
assets management. Promote the realization of due diligence 
and exemption, promote scientific and technological 
innovation and the transformation of the rights and 
responsibilities of the subject, and more effectively strengthen 
the enthusiasm of researchers and innovation motivation.(2) 
improve the system of university achievements 
transformation income distribution, make the benefits of 
researchers match the actual contribution, establish pay 
attention to quality, pay attention to the transformation of 
incentives, the position transformation of scientific and 
technological achievements and scientific management 
personnel evaluation, selection, performance evaluation basis, 

encourage scientific researchers to create high quality results, 
boost high level of transformation, service high efficiency 
production.(3) strengthen the construction of the development 
of local services, create professional technology transfer, 
technology trading, technology contract and registration in 
the service of achievement transformation, balance of 
national interests and personal interests, actively guide the 
scientific researchers get benefits from the achievements 
transformation then reverse into scientific research and 
technology development, promote sustainable development 
of output and transformation of science and technology. 

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