| The low level of production capacity utilization is a deep problem that puzzles the China’s high-quality development.To this end,the Chinese government has been paying attention to the capacity utilization level since the release of the Opinions on Curbing Overcapacity in Some Industries and Guiding the Healthy Development of Industries in 2009.In 2013,the Guiding Opinions on Resolving the Problem of Serious Excess Capacity was issued.The 19 th National Congress of the CPC raised "capacity reduction" to an unprecedented high as the first of the five major tasks of supply-side structural reform.In the 2021 government work report of the State Council,Premier Li Keqiang also pointed out again that we should continue to complete the important task of reducing production capacity.Under the great attention of the government and a series of effective measures,China’s industrial capacity utilization rate will be 75.8% in 2022,and the capacity utilization rate will be improved,but this does not mean that the backward capacity utilization rate has been fundamentally overcome.Especially in the face of downward pressure on the Chinese economy,the low level of potential and partial stage capacity utilization has turned into a real and long-term feature,which may make China’s economy at the low end of the industrial chain.Therefore,how to effectively improve the capacity utilization level is one of the important issues to be solved.The uniqueness of China’s economic system makes the capacity utilization rate not only depend on the enterprise’s own decisions,but also be affected by the local government’s policy choices.As an important regulatory tool for local governments to promote regional economic development,financial subsidies will have a significant impact on enterprise decision-making,and then affect the capacity utilization level.In terms of the reality of subsidies,the number of subsidized enterprises increased from 15000 in 1998 to 173000 in 2013,and the amount of subsidies increased from 25.9 billion yuan to 143.7 billion yuan.However,whether such a large and continuously increasing financial subsidy will help enterprises to improve the utilization rate of production capacity has not been unanimously concluded in the existing research,and there is also a lack of systematic analysis from the elements of the subsidy system,which is not conducive to exploring the optimization direction of the financial subsidy system.Based on this,this paper focuses on the core issue of how to optimize the existing financial subsidy system to better promote capacity utilization.The research ideas are as follows: First,sort out the theoretical basis of the impact of financial subsidies on capacity utilization,and lay a solid theoretical foundation for subsequent research.Secondly,the paper expounds the factual characteristics of the impact of financial subsidies on capacity utilization,clarifies the evolution path of the impact of subsidies on capacity utilization,and evaluates the effect of subsidies on capacity utilization,laying a solid foundation for subsequent research.Finally,based on the four basic elements of the subsidy system,such as orientation,source,standard and mode,the empirical analysis method is used to answer the questions of who should be supplied by the financial subsidy,who should bear the subsidy cost,how to formulate the subsidy standard,and how to select the subsidy mode,and to clarify the institutional arrangement under which the financial subsidy can give full play to its effectiveness and promote the level of capacity utilization.After comprehensive application of research methods such as random frontier,data envelopment analysis,panel vector autoregressive,multi-period double difference,DOP decomposition,generalized propensity score matching,this paper draws the following conclusions:First,China’s manufacturing capacity utilization is generally low.From the perspective of time,the capacity utilization rate of manufacturing industry did not exceed 62% during 1998-2013.From the perspective of distribution,the capacity utilization data at the enterprise level is skewed to the left.The number of enterprises with very low utilization level is small,but the number of enterprises with high utilization rate is also small.85% of the samples are distributed in the range of 60%-80% of the capacity utilization level.From the perspective of industry,in addition to the six industries identified by the government as having the problem of overcapacity,other industries also have the problem of low capacity utilization in varying degrees and are mostly concentrated in resource-intensive and environmental-polluting industries.Second,the expenditure efficiency of the financial subsidy system is low,which is reflected in the low level of capacity utilization.The performance evaluation of the expenditure effect of financial subsidies found that during 1998-2007,the first two years were on the production front,and the subsidies were relatively effective,while the other years were below the production front,and the expenditure efficiency of subsidies was relatively low.Variance decomposition found that among the four basic elements of the subsidy system studied in this paper,the subsidy object and subsidy standard have the largest contribution to the change of capacity utilization rate,with the contribution degree of 28.4% and 28%respectively,followed by the subsidy subject and subsidy method,with the contribution degree of 11.4% and 1.3% respectively.Third,financial subsidies are conducive to improving the capacity utilization rate of enterprises,but there is a "non neutral" characteristic.Based on empirical analysis,this paper finds that the capacity utilization level of subsidized enterprises is higher than that of non-subsidized enterprises,and financial subsidies as an industrial policy tool can help to improve the capacity utilization level.The paper found that subsidies promote the increase of capacity utilization rate by promoting the growth of enterprises,and will also inhibit the normal withdrawal of enterprises and hinder the growth of capacity utilization rate,but in general,the promotion effect is greater than the inhibition effect,and the total effect of subsidies on capacity utilization rate is positive.From the perspective of subsidy orientation,the policy effect of subsidy is more obvious in small enterprises,enterprises subject to severe financing constraints,private enterprises,low-profit enterprises,enterprises with low operating capacity,and enterprises in the start-up stage,that is,in "vulnerable" enterprises,but compared with the actual investment of subsidy funds,the subsidy does not tend to such enterprises,and there is a certain degree of mismatch of subsidy funds.Therefore,from the perspective of subsidy orientation,"vulnerable" enterprises should be reasonably selected to give subsidies to improve the efficiency of subsidy investment.Fourth,the higher proportion of financial subsidies from the central government’s transfer payments,the less conducive to the improvement of enterprise capacity utilization.Subject to the public pool effect of transfer payment funds and the lack of supervision mechanism caused by the information asymmetry between the central and local governments,when part of the cost of subsidy funds is transferred to the central government to bear,regardless of the enterprise ownership attribute and administrative affiliation,it will have a significant inhibitory effect on the capacity utilization rate;However,for enterprises with poor operating ability,when the financing structure of subsidy funds is biased towards transfer payment,the efficiency loss of funds will be greater.The mechanism analysis found that the inhibition effect was mainly played through the audit supervision channel.Comparing the efficiency difference between general transfer payment and special transfer payment,it is also found that the high proportion of both is not conducive to the improvement of capacity utilization,but compared with special transfer payment funds,when the subsidy funds are more from general transfer payment funds,it is more conducive to the improvement of capacity utilization.Therefore,from the perspective of subsidy sources,on the premise of abundant local financial resources,local governments should be more responsible for the expenditure costs of subsidies,reconstruct the cost-benefit chain and reduce the efficiency loss of subsidies.Fifth,there is an optimal range of subsidy standards,and too high subsidy intensity will inhibit the improvement of capacity utilization.The mechanism analysis found that the subsidy standard mainly affects the capacity utilization rate through rent-seeking costs and innovation incentive channels.On the one hand,the high amount of subsidy standard will encourage enterprises to engage in nonproductive rent-seeking activities to obtain subsidy funds,but the rise of rentseeking costs will hinder the increase of capacity utilization rate;On the other hand,the high subsidy standard will also weaken the management’s pursuit of production profits,squeeze out the enterprise’s R&D activities,and reduce the technological progress and capacity utilization.Further,using the generalized propensity score matching model,we find that there is a parabolic relationship between the subsidy standard and the capacity utilization rate;In terms of time,the optimal range of subsidy standards will change every year;From the perspective of industry,among technology-intensive enterprises,the parabola has the most obvious upward trend and the widest upward range,that is,the upper limit of the optimal subsidy standard corresponding to technology-intensive enterprises is larger.Therefore,from the level of subsidy standards,we can use historical data to estimate the optimal subsidy interval of each industry in advance,as a reference for formulating the subsidy standards for the next year,so as to improve the efficiency of fund use.Sixth,the competitive allocation of financial subsidies can effectively promote the efficiency of enterprise capacity utilization.With the help of the quasi-natural experiment of the reform of competitive allocation of special financial funds,this paper finds that the enterprises that receive subsidies in competitive allocation mode have higher capacity utilization rate than those that receive subsidies in traditional way.The mechanism analysis found that the competitive allocation reform mainly improves the level of capacity utilization through two channels: financing effect and business performance improvement.On the one hand,the reform will promote enterprises to disclose more information,which can significantly improve the external financing ability of enterprises,alleviate the plight of enterprise financing constraints,and promote the expansion of effective output;On the other hand,the reform has also made the use of funds more standardized and the performance of enterprises improved,thus promoting the growth of capacity utilization.Furthermore,from the analysis of external factors of enterprises,it is found that the policy effect is significant in the eastern and central regions,regions with high marketization level and regions with weak financial pressure.Therefore,from the perspective of subsidy mode,competitive allocation can be further promoted to the field of fund allocation by project method in the future to improve the efficiency of fund allocation.Compared with previous studies,there are three innovations in this paper:First,from the perspective of research.When analyzing the level of industrial development,most of the existing studies have constructed indicators from the industry or regional level,but these indicators usually reflect the overall level of industrial development,and more focus on revealing how to adjust between different industries.Given that this paper only focuses on the manufacturing industry,and capacity utilization index is also an important index to measure the high-quality development of the industry.But the financial subsidy has been an important means and main content of our industrial policy.One of the important goals of optimizing the financial subsidy system is to better stimulate the industry development.Therefore,based on the perspective of capacity utilization of micro-enterprises,this paper discusses the specific reform direction of optimizing China’s modern financial subsidy system,which helps to clarify the micro-action mechanism of financial subsidies affecting capacity utilization.Second,from the research content.Starting from the four basic elements of the subsidy system,such as orientation,source,standard and method,this paper systematically answers the questions of who should be subsidized,who should bear the subsidy cost,how to formulate the subsidy standard,and how to supplement the enterprise based on the goal of improving the capacity utilization rate of enterprises,and comprehensively discusses the design of the financial subsidy system that the government can more effectively promote the improvement of the capacity utilization rate under the financial constraints.In addition,this paper uses the capacity utilization rate of enterprises to measure the expenditure efficiency of subsidy funds,which enriches the micro-level direct evidence of the loss of fiscal expenditure efficiency caused by the public pool effect.Third,from the research conclusion.First,as a means of industrial policy,financial subsidies are helpful to improve the utilization rate of capacity,so the discussion of financial subsidies system should mainly focus on how to optimize.Second,the policy effect of subsidies is more obvious in "vulnerable" enterprises,but in reality,local governments do not prefer such enterprises when granting subsidies,and there is a certain degree of mismatch of subsidy funds.Third,the higher proportion of subsidy funds from the central transfer payment,the less conducive to the improvement of capacity utilization.This inhibitory effect is mainly played through the audit supervision channel.Fourth,excessive subsidy intensity will inhibit capacity utilization through the increase of rent-seeking costs and the decrease of innovation incentives.There is a parabolic relationship between subsidy standard and capacity utilization rate and the optimal interval of subsidy standard changes every year.Fifthly,enterprises that receive subsidies in competitive distribution mode have higher capacity utilization rate than enterprises that receive subsidies in traditional way.The main channels are financing effect channels and business performance improvement channels. |
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