Study On The Influence Of The Establishment Of Pilot Free Trade Zones On Enterprise Innovation

Technological innovation is the inexhaustible driving force for China to achieve highquality development.The Pilot Free Trade Zone adheres to the dual wheel drive of technological innovation and institutional innovation,removes the institutional barriers that restrict innovation,stimulates innovation vitality,plans and promotes innovation with a global perspective,and makes the best use of global innovation resources.The flow of capital and technological factors is more frequent,and high-quality enterprises continue to gather.The world’s leading high-tech industrial cluster has been established,which provides a good foundation for enterprises’ scientific and technological innovation.In the context of the relatively weak high-end innovation capability of Chinese enterprises and the urgent need to solve the "bottleneck" problem,it is more urgent than ever to use the policy of Pilot Free Trade Zones to promote the innovation capability of Chinese enterprises.Then,as the main body of national innovation,what impact will the establishment of the Pilot Free Trade Zone have on the innovation ability of enterprises?Does this impact vary depending on the nature of the property rights of the enterprise,the industry it is in and the region it is located in?By what mechanism does the Pilot Free Trade Zone have an impact on enterprise innovation?In order to answer the above questions,this paper firstly systematically reviews the relevant literature on the concept definition and policy effect evaluation of Pilot Free Trade Zones,the measurement indicators and influencing factors of enterprise innovation,and the influence of the establishment of Pilot Free Trade Zones on innovation.On this basis,starting from the strategic objectives of Pilot Free Trade Zones,this paper theoretically analyzes the financing constraint mechanism,market competition mechanism,high-level human capital mechanism of the Pilot Free Trade Zones on enterprise innovation and the influence of Pilot Free Trade Zones on the innovation heterogeneity of different types of enterprises and puts forward the corresponding theoretical hypothesis.Secondly,this paper uses the micro-level data of enterprises from 2010 to 2020 as samples to build a multi-period difference-in-differences model.The sample enterprises are divided into experimental group and control group according to whether the provinces and cities where the enterprises are registered are related to the first five batches of Pilot Free Trade Zones.The kernel density map and t test are used to describe the typical facts of the current innovation and sustainable innovation of the sample enterprises.The preliminary findings show that the establishment of Pilot Free Trade Zones can promote the improvement of enterprises’innovation ability.Thirdly,the regression results of the multi-period difference-in-differences model show that the establishment of Pilot Free Trade Zones can significantly improve the innovation ability of China’s listed manufacturing enterprises.Moreover,the reliability of this conclusion is confirmed by a series of robustness tests including parallel trend test,placebo test,propensity score matching method,sample replacement,tail reduction treatment,exclusion of other policy influences and endogeneity test.On this basis,it is found that the establishment of Pilot Free Trade Zones can improve the innovation ability of enterprises by easing the financing constraints of enterprises,strengthening the market competition and gathering high-level human capital.At the same time,the innovation promotion effect of enterprises in Pilot Free Trade Zones is different:the innovation promotion effect of Pilot Free Trade Zones on nonstate-owned enterprises,technology-intensive enterprises and enterprises in eastern China is more obvious than that of state-owned enterprises,labor and capital intensive enterprises and enterprises in central and western China.Further analysis shows that the industry-level institutional innovation in the negative list of Pilot Free Trade Zones can promote enterprise innovation.The innovation incentive clause in Pilot Free Trade Zones scheme can promote the innovation ability of enterprises.The Pilot Free Trade Zone has an innovative radiation effect on enterprises within the 100-250 km range.Finally,based on theoretical analysis and empirical results,this paper proposes that the government should strengthen the support and guidance of the Pilot Free Trade Zone policy,give targeted policy support,improve the negative list system and enterprises should actively integrate into the Pilot Free Trade Zone system,so as to provide some references for the followup implementation of Pilot Free Trade Zone policies and enterprise innovation.