| In the process of the evolution of the momentum and structure of global economic growth,technological innovation,with its high growth potential,knowledge intensity,and strong economic driving effect,exerts great influences on various countries' economic growth pattern,economic growth structure,and worldwide profit distribution structure.High level research and development also becomes the key driving force in the process of our country's high quality and sustainable economic growth.National macro fiscal policy is an important vehicle to promote innovation development strategy,and its fundamental connotation is to fully mobilize micro enterprises' willingness to innovate and enhance their innovation incentives.Considering that enterprise innovation activities also follow the basic logic of input?intermediate transaction mechanism?output,based on a detailed discussion of the current situation and problems of fiscal subsidies to support innovation activities in China,this paper first empirically examines the impact of fiscal subsidies on enterprise innovation by using a panel fixed-effects model based on the original dataset of enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2008-2019 in the CSMAR database.the impact of financial subsidies on enterprises' innovation investment.The regression results of the underlying model find that financial subsidies positively and significantly motivate firms to invest in innovation,as shown by the fact that for every 1% increase in financial subsidies,firms' innovation investment increases by 1.1136%,and the subsequent robustness tests based on the Heckman two-step method,alternative explanatory variable measures,likelihood uncorrelated regressions,and generalized linear model regressions also support the robustness of the above findings.Considering the fact that in reality,there is a certain degree of heterogeneity in the growth stage,ownership nature,industry,and major operating regions of enterprises,there may be multiple heterogeneities in the effectiveness of established financial subsidies in promoting R&D activities of different types of enterprises.To this end,this paper then examines the heterogeneous effects of financial subsidies on the innovation activities of firms across different life cycles,ownership types,industry types,and regions of operation.The results of subgroup regression and elasticity analysis find that: the incentive effect of financial subsidies on R&D investment of start-up enterprises is significantly better than its positive effect on growth and mature enterprises;the driving effect of financial subsidies on innovation investment in other ownership enterprises is better than its driving effect on investment in state-owned enterprises;and contrary to the original policy design,the marginal innovation incentive effect of financial subsidies on high-tech enterprises is weaker than that on non-high-tech enterprises.Finally,the analysis based on geographical heterogeneity shows that the marginal incentive effect of financial subsidies on R&D investment of eastern enterprises is weaker than that of central and western enterprises.After concluding that fiscal subsidies positively and significantly motivate firms to invest in R&D,this paper introduces four mediating variables,namely,financing constraints,business risks,fixed expenditure leverage,and capital market valuation,in order to clarify: what are the specific paths through which fiscal subsidies transmit and drive firms' R&D investment? How can the government,firms,and the market work together to maximize the innovation incentives of financial subsidies given the limited resource constraints? The results of the recursive model and factor analysis show that financial subsidies significantly influence firms' technological innovation investment decisions through four transmission mechanisms.They are: fiscal subsidy?(alleviate)corporate financing constraints?(promote)corporate technology innovation investment;fiscal subsidy?(reduce)corporate business risk?(promote)corporate technology innovation investment;fiscal subsidy?(reduce)corporate rigid expenditure leverage?(promote)corporate technology innovation investment;and fiscal subsidy?(correct)capital market valuation failure?(promote)corporate technology innovation investment.The regression results of the intermediary transmission mechanism reveal that,in order to fully motivate enterprises to invest in innovation,on the one hand,finance can continue to support innovation activities with strong positive externalities within budgetary limits;on the other hand,listed enterprises,local governments,banks and capital market investors can also support innovation activities from the perspective of improving intermediary indicators.Finally,this paper focuses on the possible impact of financial subsidies on firms' innovation output.By characterizing the different types of innovation output of enterprises in terms of the amount of invention patents,utility model patents and design patents granted,group regression and elasticity analysis with the help of Tobit model,it is found that: the marginal contribution of financial subsidies to the output of design patents>the marginal contribution to the output of invention patents>the marginal contribution to the output of utility model patents during the sample period.However,the marginal contribution of enterprises' own R&D investment to the above three types of patent output is as follows: the marginal contribution of enterprises' R&D investment to invention patents> the marginal contribution to design patents > the marginal contribution to utility model patents.The difference in the direction and effect of the marginal use of financial subsidies and their own R&D investment by listed enterprises indicates that it is not because they lack the basic cognition to attach importance to invention patents or the ability to develop high value-added invention patents,but specifically in the process of using funds from different sources,the enterprises are trying to reach the threshold of subsidy application for the sake of “making up the numbers” or mechanically meeting the performance assessment of the use of financial fund,do have the moral hazard of seeking“quantity” rather than “quality” and “fast” rather than “good” in using financial subsidies to support innovation activities.The second finding based on the impact of financial subsidies on firms' innovation inputs and outputs is that,under the same OLS fixed effects model and the same main explanatory variables,a 1% increase in financial subsidies leads to a 1.1136% increase in firms' innovation inputs,but only a 0.4998% increase in firms' invention patent outputs.In other words,the real output conversion rate of financial subsidies from stimulating innovation inputs to substantive innovation outputs is 44.88%.This reflects that there is a certain utility “leakage” in the actual use of financial subsidies in China.The third empirical finding is that the impact of financial subsidies on firms' innovation output is non-linear and “positive U-shaped” by introducing the quadratic term of financial subsidies into the regression model.However,further threshold inflection point calculation and comparison reveals that the actual amount of financial subsidies disbursed breaks the bottom extreme of the U-shaped curve during the sample period,and this finding remains robust after switching between panel least squares,Tobit regression and robust least squares regression methods.The empirical results of the quadratic regression and threshold calculation indicate that the effect of financial subsidies on firms' innovation output is positively significant in the first period,and in the specific course of action,financial subsidies have an increasing efficacy in promoting firms' innovation output.However,the in-depth mechanism analysis by introducing the panel threshold regression model shows that although fiscal subsidies can promote the increase of firms' innovation output in a marginal and incremental manner,there is a specific threshold condition for this incremental boosting effect to take effect,and only when the ratio of intangible assets to total assets of firms crosses the thresholds of 3.55%,9.64% and 23.5% successively,the boosting effect of fiscal subsidies on innovation output can be significantly and stepped up.Unfortunately,the screening of the original sample based on the above findings reveals that50.53% of the enterprises are still in the low level of the promotion effect of less than the first threshold value of 3.55%,and there is still room for improvement in the effectiveness of financial subsidies in stimulating innovation output of enterprises.The ratio of intangible assets to total assets of enterprises represents the scale of expertise and R&D investment of a given enterprise to a certain extent.Enterprises with certain first-mover advantage in skills and experience reserves can stimulate the incentive effectiveness of subsidies more efficiently through positive transfer of knowledge and integration of existing strategies.This paper provides empirical evidence for improving the subsidy support system of technological innovation and further giving full play to the role of financial subsidies in supporting and promoting innovation activities.Based on the theoretical analysis and empirical research of this paper,five policy implications can be obtained as follows: First,in the follow-up work,the macro-regulation role of fiscal subsidies should be given full play,and targeted incentives should be continued for cutting-edge technology and naive industries,on the premise of considering the heterogeneity characteristics of the recipient enterprises.Second,things begin to decline when they reach the extreme,and when the water is full,it overflows.In the process of subsequent innovation support,by strengthening the coordination between macro finance and various sources of funds supply,and taking into account the adequacy of the recipient's own funds,the subsidy assistance should focus on the weak links such as the start-up stage,non-state-owned enterprises and central or western enterprises.Let the "visible hand" truly become a strong foundation to support the capital-poor subjects to reduce business risks and continue to carry out innovative activities.Third,the quality improvement and increase effect of the follow-up subsidy policy should pay more attention to structural adjustment.To be specific,the incentive for substantive innovation activities can be further strengthened,and the incentive for the output of design patents and utility model patents can be weakened accordingly.Fourth,financial subsidies can gradually reduce the inertia dependence on the previous fund allocation path,and combine the design of the annual performance assessment index system of specific rights,responsibility and profit points,so as to further strengthen the accountability for the low input and output conversion rate of public funds.Fifth,on the basis of improving the quality of information disclosure,financial subsidies can appropriately strengthen the support for technology and knowledge-intensive subjects,so as to give full play to their marginal incentive effect on the increase of innovation output,and therefore to further improve their comprehensive support efficiency for innovation activities. |
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