Literature Review on the Impact of Blockchain Technology on Resource Allocation Efficiency

Nuoya LIN, Li’nan JIN, Jiaming LI, Xiaofei LI, Yihan XU

College of City Construction, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330096, China

Abstract With the rapid development of Internet technology, the importance of blockchain technology has become increasingly prominent. Faced with this situation, extensive research has been carried out at home and abroad. Through the analysis of relevant literature on blockchain in recent years, it is found that there are many research results of blockchain technology in medical care, finance, education, etc., but its application in the field of resource allocation efficiency is rare. From the existing studies on the influencing factors of resource allocation efficiency in China, it is found that there are significant differences in resource allocation efficiency between China and some developed countries or between various provinces and cities of China.

Key words Blockchain, Resource allocation efficiency, Influencing factors, Literature review

1 Introduction

At the 18thcollective study meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held on the afternoon of October 24, 2019, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the future development must firmly regard the blockchain as an important breakthrough in the field of independent application and innovation of China’s core technologies, and proposed that in the future, it is necessary to actively and boldly study and explore the practical application of the results of the "blockchain+" pilot project in the field of people’s livelihood in the whole country, and promote the in-depth development of China’s Internet blockchain financial system in many important industrial fields such as medical smart city education, elderly care, precision poverty alleviation, medical payment, and national health and intelligent medical applications, and provide some more convenient, more efficient, intelligent, high-quality, efficient, safe and convenient basic life and public and cultural services for urban and rural people to travel in the future. The economic growth theory shows that the optimization of resource allocation efficiency affects the high-quality economic growth to a certain extent. The application of blockchain technology to resource allocation provides a new development direction for the current resource allocation. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the impact of blockchain technology on resource allocation efficiency.

2 Research status of blockchain technology in different fields

Zhuang Leietal.made a series of calculations and analyses on China’s blockchain digital currency mechanism[1], and it can be seen clearly that blockchain digital currency has strong credit creation ability, which has a greater impact on the traditional currency value credit creation mechanism. Therefore, it is very necessary to build a risk monitoring system and other applications. Zhang Tao studied the application of blockchain to China’s bill market[2], and analyzed the current situation and existing risks of the traditional bill market, which can effectively prevent the risks existing in the bill market, and can better build and maintain the bill system of the market and store data more securely. In the analysis of the blockchain digital bill platform, the advantages, the core business and functions of the platform were described. Finally, the outlook for the platform was put forward, and it is hoped that the platform should focus on continuous exploration and innovation, improve the efficiency of capital transactions, and effectively reduce credit risks while ensuring basic business. After pointing out the prospects and strategies of blockchain bills, Liu Changwei analyzed the risk points and countermeasures of blockchain bills[3]. First of all, it is difficult to confirm customers. The blockchain technology correspondingly enhances the privacy of specific actors, so it is more difficult to trace the relevant personnel. Regulations should be made when applying blockchain bills, so as to find specific personnel in time and facilitate supervision and inspection. Secondly, the spreading mechanism of the blockchain is the entire system, so the scope of the spread is large when a problem occurs at a certain point. In this regard, a certain block range should be divided to establish an isolation mechanism. Finally, for decentralization, centralized supervision still needs to exist in the initial implementation stage.

3 Research status of resource allocation efficiency at home and abroad

3.1 Influencing factors of resource allocation efficiency in various regionsZhang Yongkai studied the R&D resource allocation efficiency and influencing factors of major countries in the world[4]. By constructing a stochastic frontier model, the R&D resource allocation efficiency of major countries such as the United States, Japan, and China was analyzed and compared, and it is found that some western developed countries are large R&D input and output countries, but have low R&D efficiency; some developed countries have high R&D efficiency, while some developing countries such as China and Brazil also have high R&D efficiency. At the same time, R&D resource allocation efficiency is positively promoted by exogenous variables. Xiao Minetal.analyzed the differences and influencing factors of regional R&D resource allocation efficiency in China[5], covering the R&D resource allocation efficiency and its influencing factors in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. The R&D resource allocation efficiency in the four major regions of China (the eastern coastal area, the northeast, the middle and the west) shows a gradually decreasing trend, and the R&D resource allocation efficiency is positively promoted by exogenous variables such as international trade intensity and local government’s support for scientific and technological activities.

3.2 Resource allocation efficiency in different fieldsZhang Haifengetal.studied the efficiency and influencing factors of China’s network information resource allocation[6], used the super-efficiency SBM model to measure the efficiency of network information resource allocation in 23 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China from 2011 to 2015, and empirically analyzed its influencing factors based on the Tobit model. The results show that the utilization rate of basic network resources and content resources in most provinces was low, and the overall efficiency of network information resource allocation in China was low, especially in the central and western regions. At the same time, with the increase of the government’s support and Internet access costs, the efficiency of network information resource allocation declined; as the development level of the network market increased, the efficiency of network information resource allocation also rose. Tong Xiaogeetal.studied the influencing factors of financial resource allocation efficiency[7], and explored the deep reasons for the decline of Chinese-style financial resource allocation efficiency from multiple dimensions. It is found that the allocation of financial resources can be better explained by the promotion incentive system of local officials. The efficiency of financial resource allocation is negatively correlated with the promotion incentive policy based on the "GDP performance assessment", leading to a decrease in the efficiency of financial resource allocation. The decrease in the efficiency of financial resource allocation related to the promotion incentives of local officials is negatively correlated with the tenure. Meanwhile, the influence of the promotion incentives of local officials on the decrease in the efficiency of financial resource allocation is related to the level of financial pressure and institutional efficiency.

3.3 Resource allocation efficiency in various perspectives

From the perspective of safety and efficiency, Liu Quanlongetal.studied the influencing factors and interaction mechanism of resource allocation of coal production logistics system under the premise of ensuring safety and efficiency[8], and analyzed the influencing paths and degree of the influencing factors by using SEM based on the theoretical model of the action mechanism of the influencing factors of resource allocation. It is found that the system safety and efficiency are significantly affected by the human resources subsystem, equipment subsystem, and safety management subsystem, and the system efficiency is significantly influenced by the environmental improvement subsystem. Srom the perspective of "double first-class", You Lietal.studied the efficiency of higher education resource allocation in China[9], and used the super-efficiency DEA-Malmquist method to continuously and dynamically evaluate the efficiency of higher education resource allocation in 31 provinces (autonomous regions, and municipalities) in China from 2016 to 2019; the differences in the efficiency of higher education resource allocation between the eastern, middle and western regions were analyzed, and the influencing factors of higher education resource allocation efficiency was explored based on Tobit regression model. The results show that the overall efficiency of higher education resource allocation steadily improved, and the change in technical efficiency was the main factor affecting the allocation efficiency. In general, the efficiency of higher education resource allocation had little difference between various regions. Based on the research conclusions, suggestions were put forward to improve the allocation of educational resources.

3.4 Different research methods of resource allocation efficiencyAt present, the academic circles have involved different methods for measuring resource allocation efficiency. For instance, You Lietal.used the super-efficiency DEA-Malmquist method[9]; Liu Quanlongetal.used SEM to study the influencing factors of resource allocation[8]; Fan Dechengetal.constructed a two-stage StoNED Model to measure and compare the efficiency of technological innovation resource allocation in high-end equipment manufacturing industry[10]; Bai Pengetal.constructed a resource allocation efficiency measurement index system for the toll road industry, and studied the resource allocation efficiency of China’s toll road industry[11].

4 Conclusions and outlook

By combing the relevant literature on the influencing factors of blockchain technology and resource allocation efficiency, it is found that scholars have carried out in-depth research on the influencing factors of blockchain technology and resource allocation efficiency, which greatly enriches the research content in their respective academic fields and provides an important reference for the development of various industries.

However, although the influencing factors of resource allocation efficiency have been analyzed in the existing studies, most of the studies stay at the macro level, and there is no analysis at the micro level. Most of the current studies only discusse the research content in each field. For example, in the field of blockchain technology research, only its own application value is analyzed, but the inherent impact mechanism of blockchain technology on resource allocation efficiency is ignored. Combining the two is not only a great enrichment for the two fields, but also a major breakthrough in the research on resource allocation efficiency.