Abstract:      Recently, a new wave of S&T talents scramble battles has been started in many Chinese cities. They formulated different kinds of favorable policies to attract S&T talents with either high degree or high skill from home and abroad. These policies include permanent household registration, subsidy for housing purchase, settling-in allowances and public service in accordance with their education background or expertise. The main reason for this wave of battles for S&T talents is that China′s economy has been driven by extensive factors for a long time. However, the law of diminishing marginal returns indicates increasing downward pressure on China′s economy in recent years. In order to reverse this unfavorable situation, the Central Government put forward the Supply-Side Structural Reform and Innovation-Driven Development Strategy in time. Under such circumstance, local governments vigorously develop high-tech industries. Since research personnel are the driving force of innovation, more and more local governments have gradually transferred their development strategies from attracting investment to attracting S&T talents.This paper examines whether S&T talent-attracting policies can improve local innovation performance and what are the main influencing factors. Most studies on the relationship between the local government and regional innovation performance were conducted from the perspective of capital. However, whether a firm can innovate successfully requires not only sufficient funds, but also a large number of S&T talents. In this case, this paper aims at examining the relationship between local governments′ S&T talents support and regional innovation performance based on the issuance of S&T talent-attracting policies by major cities in China from January 2017 to May 2018.It uses the event study method to analyze the effect of S&T talent-attracting policies on the firm value of high-tech enterprises, and the internal mechanism. The research show that S&T talent-attracting policies can help improve local innovation performance, and the effect is realized through S&T talents dividend mechanism. Specifically, the findings of this paper suggest four main conclusions. Firstly, the issuance of S&T talent-attracting policies by local governments can promote the firm value of local high-tech listed companies. The policies may attract more highly educated and skilled S&T talents from home and abroad, and then increase the S&T talents supply for local enterprises. In addition, the gathering of S&T talents will produce agglomeration effect such as information sharing, collective learning and knowledge outflow. Moreover, they have different understandings and perspectives of even the same knowledge or technology. Their communication with each other may ignite sparks of wisdom to improve their ability to solve technical problems. This helps companies improve their innovation capability. Secondly, in areas with higher concentration of high-tech industries, the effect of S&T talent-attracting policies on the value of local high-tech enterprises is more significant. On the one hand, it is easier for S&T talents to obtain satisfactory jobs in those regions, and it is also relatively more convenient for them to find new jobs in the same city in the future. On the other hand, in the areas with high concentration of high-tech industries, there are a large number of S&T talents. This may shorten the distance among them in space and reduce the cost of information search. S&T talents can easily communicate with each other in order to have more opportunities for discussing, learning and developing. As a result, knowledge transfer, diffusion and communication will become more efficient, which may form knowledge spillover effect. On this basis, the innovation effect will be further improved.Thirdly, in the areas with better livability, the above effect is more significant. On the one hand, good ecological environment is more attractive to high-end research talents. On the other hand, high-end research talents enjoy more choices about their workplace, since they have better education background, more sophisticated skills and higher income.Lastly, the positive effect of S&T talent-attracting policies on the firm value of local high-tech enterprises is realized through the S&T talents dividend mechanism rather than the demographic dividend mechanism, because the effect is more significant in companies with higher R&D input, but it is not significant in non-high-tech companies. The conclusions may provide four implications for related policy-making. Firstly, local governments should improve the publicity of S&T talents policies so as to make more S&T talents aware of the existence of these policies. For example, local governments can organize staff to hold policy seminars in well-known universities across the country. Secondly, local governments should expand high-tech industrial parks and introduce more preferential policies to attract more high-tech enterprises so as to give better play to the effect of S&T talents policies. Thirdly, local governments should pay more attention to the ecological environment and create better living environment, which may play an important role in attracting S&T talents and developing local high-tech industries, to be in accordance with the development concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets". Fourthly, China′s economic growth has begun to shift from a demographic dividend driven mode to S&T talents dividend driven mode. From the perspective of long-term development, local governments should not only focus on how to attract S&T talents, but also consider how to retain these S&T talents, so that they can make more contribution to the local construction and development for a long time. This requires the local government to earnestly fulfill their commitments listed in the S&T talent-attracting policies, and keep caring about the status and needs of S&T talents in the aspect of their work, study and life. 

Key words: S&T talent-attracting policy, industrial agglomeration degree, degree of livability, S&T talents dividend