In the analyses on economic growth factors, researchers generally use the production function model to calculate the contribution rates of influencing factors to economic growth. The paper proposes a new modified VES production function model. As for the model's parameter estimation, the conventional optimization methods are complicated, generally require information like the gradient of objective function, and have the poor convergence rate and precision. The paper gives a modern intelligent

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... gorithm, i.e., the cuckoo search algorithm, which has the strong robustness, can be realized easily, has the fast convergence rate and can be used flexibly. To enhance the convergence rate and precision, the paper improves the conventional cuckoo search algorithm. Using the new model, the paper gives a method calculating the contribution rates of economic growth influencing factors scientifically. Finally, the paper calculates the contribution rates of influencing factors to economic growth in Shanghai City, China. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary: 65K10, 91B02; Secondary: 93B40.