Abstract Using the panel data of 30 provinces and cities in China from 2007 to 2014, this study explored the impact of R&D personnel flow on regional innovation performance. Firstly, by expanding the gravity model to measure the flow of R&D personnel, it indicates that the inflow and outflow of R&D personnel indicate significant differences among different regions; then based on the knowledge production function, considering the spatial correlation, this study established a spatial lag model and a spatial error model to investigate the influence of R&D personnel flow. The main conclusions include: there is a significant correlation between the mobility of R&D personnel and regional innovation performance; R&D personnel inflow and regional innovation performance positively correlates, while the outflow is negatively correlated with it, and the influence generated by the inflow is stronger than the spillover effect; and in eastern region, the positive R&D personnel inflow effect is more obvious, while in the midwest, the negative effect of the outflow is more prominent.
