Economic Policy Uncertainty?Institutional Investors And R&D Investment

After the financial crisis in 2008,China's economic intervention has increased.This kind of discretionary intervention policy has brought great uncertainty to the decision-making of enterprises.In 2014,China's economy has stepped into the new normal from rapid development.The introduction of policies such as industry 4.0,supply-side structural reform,and interest rate liberalization reform can all bring about economic policy uncertainty to some extent.Many scholars at home and abroad have studied the impact of economic policy uncertainty on the behavior of micro enterprises.In the period of economic restructuring,enterprises have become more dependent on national policies,especially the decision-making of R&D investment.Research and development investment is highly remunerative but also risky,which plays a crucial role in the development of enterprises.Enterprises need to balance the R&D investment opportunities brought by economic policy uncertainty with the high risks under the uncertainty so as to make the best decision.Therefore,the uncertainty of economic policy will affect the R&D investment of enterprises.At the same time,the number of institutional investors in China is also increasing.As an important arrangement of corporate governance and an important shareholder of the company,institutional investors also play an irreplaceable role in the decision-making of investment in enterprise R&D.Taking a-share listed companies in China's securities market from 2009 to 2017 as samples,this paper studies the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and R&D investment,as well as the moderating effect of institutional investor shareholding on the relationship between the two.Empirical results show that:(1)Economic policy uncertainty will promote enterprises' R&D investment.(2)From the perspective of R&D heterogeneity,economic policy uncertainty promotes exploratory innovation but has no impact on developmental innovation.(3)Institutional investor shareholding has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and enterprise R&D investment.Based on the above conclusions,this paper tries to put forward some suggestions,and at the same time points out the deficiencies of the paper and the direction of future research.