Abstract: Talents are the fundamental driving force for countries and regions to achieve innovation-driven economic growth. This paper empirically analyzes the economic growth effect and spatial spillover effect of the implementation of the talent introduction policy in the Yangtze River Delta by using the Dynamic Spacial Durbin Model with the double fixed effects of time and space. The empirical results show that the implementation of talent introduction policy not only has a U-shaped impact on the local economic growth, but also has a nonlinear U-shaped spatial spillover effect on the economic growth of related regions in the short and long term, which is manifested by the transformation from the siphon effect in the early stage of policy implementation to the diffusion effect in the late stage of policy implementation. Among the talent introduction policy tools, scientific research support and tax preference have significant U-shaped nonlinear effects on economic growth, while housing security shows a positive linear relationship. The talent introduction policy mainly promotes regional economic growth through three ways: scientific and technological R&D innovation, institutional environment improvement and industrial structure upgrading.
