Research On The Impact Of Lending Rate Marketization On Enterprise Innovation

As China’s economy shifts from high-speed growth to high-quality development,the crude growth model achieved in the past with large-scale resource and human input is no longer applicable.In order to cultivate new dynamic energy for China’s economic development,the implementation of innovation-driven development strategy is an inevitable choice for China to achieve high-quality economic development.As an important micro-innovation subject,enterprises can not only maintain their core competitiveness through innovation,but also inject a source of vitality for China’s sustainable economic growth.Therefore,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to study the influencing factors of enterprise innovation from a micro perspective to promote economic transformation and realize the change of economic development from "factor-driven" and "investment-driven" to "innovation-driven".It has important theoretical and practical significance.In order to break the barriers that restrict enterprise innovation and stimulate the innovation potential of the whole society,it is necessary to give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and provide a harmonious policy and institutional environment for enterprise innovation.Among them,the financial system,as an important support for enterprise credit resources,has a profound impact on the access to credit funds for enterprise innovation.Efforts to deepen the reform of the financial system mechanism,increase the flexibility and convenience of credit support for innovation,and alleviate the constraints of enterprise innovation financing are not only the proper meaning of financial support for enterprise innovation,but also a necessary part of the implementation of the innovation development strategy.Studies have confirmed the far-reaching significance of interest rate market reform in promoting the construction of financial institutions,eliminating capital price distortions,guiding capital flows,and improving resource allocation efficiency.In this policy context,this paper selects a sample of micro enterprises to explore whether the interest rate market reform can alleviate the financing constraints of enterprises through rational allocation of corporate credit resources,provide financial support for innovation,and thus enhance corporate innovation.the removal of the upper and lower limits of loan interest rates for financial institutions in 2004 and 2013 marked the basic completion of the market reform of loan interest rates in China.Does the marketization of loan interest rates provide effective financial protection for enterprise innovation? In what ways will it affect corporate innovation? Based on the quasi-natural experiment of loan interest rate ceiling and floor deregulation,this paper selects the data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2001-2006 and 2010-2015,respectively,and conducts a study on the level of corporate innovation after deregulation of loan interest rates,taking into account the heterogeneity of corporate risk levels.The empirical results show that the liberalization of the upper limit of loan interest rates can significantly promote the innovation level of high-risk firms and the liberalization of the lower limit of loan interest rates can significantly promote the innovation level of low-risk firms,and this promotion effect is achieved by alleviating the financing constraints faced by firms’ innovation.Further tests also demonstrate that bank credit and credit costs significantly increase for high-risk firms after the liberalization of loan interest rate ceilings,and significantly increase and decrease for low-risk firms after the liberalization of loan interest rate floors.In addition,the results of this paper for the sub-sample of property rights nature and firm size indicate that deregulation of loan interest rates plays a significant role in promoting innovation for high-risk and low-risk state-owned firms,non-state-owned firms,and large-scale firms,respectively,while no significant increase in innovation level is found for small-scale firms of different risk levels.