The Impact Of Financial Subsidies On Total Factor Productivity Of High-tech Enterprises

At present,China’s economy has shifted from a stage of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development,and is in the critical period of transforming the development mode,optimizing the economic structure,and transforming the driving force of growth.High quality development is not only the essential requirement of realizing Chinese path to modernization,but also the primary task of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way.As the main force in promoting the innovation driven development strategy,high-tech enterprises are the backbone of promoting technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading in China.Improving the total factor productivity of high-tech enterprises is of great significance for achieving high-quality development of the real economy.However,the improvement of total factor productivity in high-tech enterprises not only requires the decisive role of the market in the resource allocation process,but also requires government departments to introduce relevant support policies to reduce efficiency losses caused by market failures.Therefore,as the main tool of fiscal policy,government subsidies have an important impact on the total factor productivity of high-tech enterprises.Based on the above practical background and existing research and theoretical analysis,this thesis uses empirical data from high-tech listed companies from 2012 to 2019 to empirically test the impact of government subsidies on total factor productivity of high-tech enterprises and its mechanism,and discusses possible heterogeneous impacts.Firstly,based on the existing literature and theoretical basis,this thesis analyzes the impact of government subsidies on total factor productivity of high-tech enterprises from two aspects,namely,promotion and inhibition,and proposes research hypotheses.Secondly,in the research design section,this thesis briefly introduces the data sources and sample selection,defines the main variables,and sets up a two-way fixed effect model for individual time.Finally,this thesis conducts empirical testing based on the above econometric model and obtains the following conclusions:First,the benchmark regression conclusion indicates that government subsidies have a significant inhibitory effect on total factor productivity of high-tech enterprises.After considering endogenous issues and a series of other robustness tests,the research conclusion remains valid.Secondly,the impact mechanism test shows that research and development manipulation is the main reason for the inefficiency of government subsidies,but the impact of political linkages is relatively small.In addition,government subsidies are difficult to promote technological innovation in high-tech enterprises,and their impact on R&D investment and performance is not significant.Thirdly,the heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of government subsidies on total factor productivity of high-tech enterprises has significant heterogeneity in enterprise property rights,enterprise scale,and enterprise life cycle.Specifically,the inhibitory effect of government subsidies on total factor productivity of high-tech enterprises is mainly reflected in non-state high-tech enterprises,small-scale high-tech enterprises,and high-tech enterprises in the growth stage.The theoretical analysis in this thesis shows that government subsidies can exert resource attributes and signaling effects,alleviate financing constraints faced by high-tech enterprises,and promote the growth of total factor productivity of high-tech enterprises through promoting technological innovation.However,empirical research has found that government subsidies have a significant inhibitory effect on total factor productivity of high-tech enterprises,and R&D manipulation is the main reason for the inefficiency of government subsidies.Based on this,in order to further optimize the government subsidy strategy and improve the efficiency of government subsidies,this thesis proposes the following specific countermeasures and suggestions:First,improve the information disclosure mechanism for high-tech enterprises’ research and development activities,develop a more detailed research and development information disclosure system,and effectively improve the willingness and quality of enterprises to disclose research and development information.Secondly,improve the supervision mechanism for high-tech enterprises after obtaining government subsidies,and strengthen internal and external supervision of high-tech enterprises’ research and development activities.Third,strengthen the punishment mechanism for high-tech enterprises after obtaining government subsidies,punish high-tech enterprises that have "breached the contract",and establish and improve the innovation credit evaluation system for high-tech enterprises.Fourth,implement differentiated government subsidy strategies based on different types of high-tech enterprises.Specifically,it is necessary to focus on non-state owned high-tech enterprises,small-scale high-tech enterprises,and growing high-tech enterprises as key monitoring and evaluation objects.