Share:


Behavior and influence mechanisms of enterprises using government subsidies: evidence from China

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of different subsidy use patterns on economic performance, the effect mechanisms, and differences among enterprises with heterogeneous economic performance. A theoretical model is built to analyze the factors influencing subsidy use. Applying ordinary least squares and panel quantile regressions on panel data of China’s 3,565 A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2017, we find that subsidies can significantly improve economic performance. Specifically, enterprises usually use subsidies in three different ways (i.e. R&D input, expansion of production capacity for existing products, and human resource training), and the positive impact of these three use patterns on economic performance is moderated by two factors (i.e. the proportions of both R&D operating expenses and human resource training cost) in different degrees. Moreover, the effects are more significant in the lower quantile of economic performance; hence, heterogeneity of economic performance must be considered when formulating relevant policies.


First published online 24 August 2021

Keyword : economic performance, government subsidy, moderating effect, panel quantile regression, R&D, China

How to Cite
Yan, X., & Huang, G. (2021). Behavior and influence mechanisms of enterprises using government subsidies: evidence from China. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 27(6), 1325-1356. https://doi.org/10.3846/tede.2021.15140
Published in Issue
Nov 18, 2021
Abstract Views
833
PDF Downloads
549
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

Akcigit, U., Hanley, D., & Serrano-Velarde, N. (2021). Back to basics: Basic research spillovers, innovation policy and growth. The Review of Economic Studies, 88(1), 1–43. https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdaa061

Arrow, K. J. (1962). The economic implications of learning by doing. Review of Economic Studies, 29(3), 155–173. https://doi.org/10.2307/2295952

Bauer, T. D., Dehning, B., & Stratopoulos, T. C. (2012). The financial performance of global information and communication technology companies. Journal of Information Systems, 26(2), 119–152. https://doi.org/10.2308/isys-50215

Baumol, W. (1990). Entrepreneurship: Productive, unproductive, and destructive. Journal of Political Economy, 98(5), 893–921. https://doi.org/10.1086/261712

Becker, B. (2015). Public R&D policies and private R&D investment: A survey of the empirical evidence. Journal of Economic Surveys, 29(5), 917–942. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12074

Bernini, C., & Pellegrini, G. (2011). How are growth and productivity in private firms affected by public subsidy? Evidence from a regional policy. Regional Science & Urban Economics, 41(3), 253–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2011.01.005

Boeing, P. (2016). The allocation and effectiveness of China’s R&D subsidies: Evidence from listed firms. Research Policy, 45(9), 1774–1789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2016.05.007

Boselie, P., Dietz, G., & Boon, C. (2005). Commonalities and contradictions in HRM and performance research. Human Resource Management Journal, 15(3), 67–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2005.tb00154.x

Brou, D., & Ruta, M. (2013). Rent seeking, market structure, and growth. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 115, 878–901. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjoe.12014

Carboni, O. A. (2017). The effect of public support on investment and R&D: An empirical evaluation on European manufacturing firms. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 117, 282–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.11.017

Chen, C. R., & Huang, Y. (2011). Mutual fund governance and performance: A quantile regression analysis of Morningstar’s stewardship grade. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 19(4), 311–333. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2011.00858.x

Chen, G., & Breedlove, J. (2020). The effect of innovation-driven policy on innovation efficiency: Based on the listed sports firms on Chinese new Third Board. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 21(4), 735–755. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSMS-12-2019-0136

Chen, Y., Chen, M., & Mishra, A. K. (2020). Subsidies under uncertainty: Modeling of input- and outputoriented policies. Economic Modelling, 85, 39–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2019.05.005

Cin, B. C., Kim, Y. J., & Vonortas, N. S. (2017). The impact of public R&D subsidy on small firm productivity: Evidence from Korean SMEs. Small Business Economics, 48(2), 345–360. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-016-9786-x

Clausen, T. H. (2009). Do subsidies have positive impacts on R&D and innovation activities at the firm level? Structural Change & Economic Dynamics, 20(4), 239–253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strueco.2009.09.004

Cohen, W. M. (2010). Fifty years of empirical studies of innovative activity and performance. In B. H. Hall, & N. Rosenberg (Eds.), Handbook of the economics of innovation (pp. 129–213). North-Holland. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-7218(10)01004-X

Colombo, M. G., Grilli, L., & Murtinu, S. (2011). R&D subsidies and the performance of high-tech start-ups. Economics Letters, 112(1), 97–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2011.03.007

Dai, X., & Cheng, L. (2015). The effect of public subsidies on corporate R&D investment: An application of the generalized propensity score. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 90(2), 410–419. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2014.04.014

Frankenfield, J. (2020, August 21). Research and development (R&D) expenses definition. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/research-and-development-expenses.asp

Garcia, A., & Mohnen, P. (2010). Impact of government support on R&D and innovation (MERIT Working Papers No. 2010-034). United Nations University, Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).

Gelabert, L., Fosfuri, A., & Tribó, J. A. (2009). Does the effect of public support for R&D depend on the degree of appropriability? Journal of Industrial Economics, 57(4), 736–767. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6451.2009.00396.x

Geroski, P., & Machin, S. (2006). Do innovating firms outperform non-innovators? Business Strategy Review, 3(2), 79–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8616.1992.tb00030.x

Gomez, M. A., & Sequeira, T. N. (2014). Should the U.S. increase subsidies to R&D? Lessons from an endogenous growth theory. Oxford Economic Papers, 66(1), 254–282. https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpt007

Guellec, D., & van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, B. (2000). The impact of public R&D expenditure on business R&D. Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 12(3), 225–243. https://doi.org/10.1080/10438590290004555

Guo, D., Guo, Y., & Jiang, K. (2016). Government-subsidized R&D and firm innovation: Evidence from China. Research Policy, 45(6), 1129–1144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2016.03.002

Hassine, H. B., & Mathieu, C. (2020). R&D crowding out or R&D leverage effects: An evaluation of the French cluster-oriented technology policy. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 155, 120025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120025

Hogendoorn, B., Rud, I., Groot, W., & van den Brink, H. M. (2019). The effects of human capital interventions on entrepreneurial performance in industrialized countries. Journal of Economic Surveys, 33(3), 798–826. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12308

Jin, Z., Shang, Y., & Xu, J. (2018). The impact of government subsidies on private R&D and firm performance: Does ownership matter in China’s manufacturing industry? Sustainability, 10(7), 2205. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072205

Jose, M., & Sharma, R. (2020). Effectiveness of fiscal incentives for innovation: Evidence from meta‐regression analysis. Journal of Public Affairs, e2146. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2146

Jugend, D., Fiorini, P. D. C., Armellini, F., & Ferrari, A. G. (2020). Public support for innovation: A systematic review of the literature and implications for open innovation. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 156, 119985. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.119985

Kanwar, S., & Evenson, R. (2003). Does intellectual property protection spur technological change? Oxford Economic Papers, 55(2), 235–264. https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/55.2.235

Kenton, W. (2021, March 20). Operating expense. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/operating_expense.asp

Kim, K. (2021). Output additionality of R&D subsidy on manufacturing venture firms in Korea: The moderating role of subcontracting regime. European Journal of Innovation Management, 24(2), 290–314. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-05-2019-0130

Kleer, R. (2010). Government R&D subsidies as a signal for private investors. Research Policy, 39(10), 1361–1374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2010.08.001

Klemperer, P. (1990). How broad should the scope of patent protection be? Rand Journal of Economics, 21(1), 113–130. https://doi.org/10.2307/2555498

Lai, Y.-B. (2020). Rent-seeking, R&D, and productivity. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 67(4), 404–419. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjpe.12243

Li, J., Ren, H., Zhang, C., Li, Q., & Duan, K. (2020). Substantive innovation or strategic innovation? Research on multiplayer stochastic evolutionary game model and simulation. Complexity, 2020, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8882813

Lin, S.-H., Li, J.-H., Hsu, C.-C., Hsieh, J.-C., & Liao, P.-C. (2018). The strategic exercise of options using government subsidies: An analysis of production subsidies for the ground source heat pump. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 989(1), 012003. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/989/1/012003

London, S., Brida, J. G., & Risso, W. A. (2008). Human capital and innovation: A model of endogenous growth with a “skill-loss effect”. Economics Bulletin, 15(7), 1–10. http://www.accessecon.com/pubs/EB/2008/Volume15/EB-08O10001A.pdf

Mckenzie, J., & Walls, W. D. (2013). Australian films at the Australian box office: Performance, distribution, and subsidies. Journal of Cultural Economics, 37(2), 247–269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-012-9181-7

Murphy, K. M., Shleifer, A., & Vishny, R. W. (1991). The allocation of talent: Implications for growth. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106(2), 503–530. https://doi.org/10.2307/2937945

Nie, P., Xiao, X., Wang, C., & Cui, T. (2020). Innovation subsidy under duopoly. Managerial and Decision Economics, 41(3), 362–370. https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.3105

Perera, A. (2012). Impact of measuring and reporting human resource on investment decisions in Sri Lanka. International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research, 54(8), 38–42. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2115274

Powell, D., & Wagner, J. (2014). The exporter productivity premium along the productivity distribution: Evidence from quantile regression with nonadditive firm fixed effects. Review of World Economics, 150(4), 763–785. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10290-014-0192-7

Redding, S. (1996). The low-skill, low-quality trap: Strategic complementarities between human capital and R&D. Economic Journal, 106(435), 458–470. https://doi.org/10.2307/2235260

Russo, C., Goodhue, R. E., & Sexton, R. J. (2011). Agricultural support policies in imperfectly competitive markets: Why market power matters in policy design. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 93(5), 1328–1340. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aar050

Shen, X., & Lin, B. (2020). Policy incentives, R&D investment, and the energy intensity of China’s manufacturing sector. Journal of Cleaner Production, 255, 120208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120208

Sissoko, A. (2011). R&D subsidies and firm-level productivity: Evidence from France (Discussion Papers). Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).

Sun, Y., & Cao, C. (2016). China: Standardize R&D costing. Nature, 536, 30. https://doi.org/10.1038/536030b

Szucs, F. (2020). Do research subsidies crowd out private R&D of large firms? Evidence from European Framework Programmes. Research Policy, 49(3), 103923. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2020.103923

Tao, Q., Sun, Y., Zhu, Y., & Yang, X. (2017). Political connections and government subsidies: Evidence from financially distressed firms in China. Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, 53(8), 1854–1868. https://doi.org/10.1080/1540496X.2017.1332592

Tebourbi, I., Ting, I. W. K., Le, H. T. M., & Kweh, Q. L. (2020). R&D investment and future firm performance: The role of managerial overconfidence and government ownership. Managerial and Decision Economics, 41(1), 1269–1281. https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.3173

Tzelepis, D., & Skuras, D. (2004). The effects of regional capital subsidies on firm performance: An empirical study. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 11(1), 121–129. https://doi.org/10.1108/14626000410519155

Tzelepis, D., & Skuras, D. (2006). Strategic performance measurement and the use of capital subsidies. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 55(7), 527–538. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410400610702133

Xiao, D. D., Zhu, G. L., & Wang, J. (2013). The impact of government S&T input on the enterprise’s R&D expenditure-empirical research based on a quantile regression. R&D Management, 25, 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.118375

Xiao, X., Chen, Z.-R., & Nie, P.-Y. (2020). Analysis of two subsidies for EVs: Based on an expanded theoretical discrete-choice model. Energy, 208, 118375.

Yu, F., Guo, Y., Le-Nguyen, K., Barnes, S. J., & Zhang, W. (2016). The impact of government subsidies and enterprises’ R&D investment: A panel data study from renewable energy in China. Energy Policy, 89, 106–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.11.009

Zhao, S., Xu, B., & Zhang, W. (2018). Government R&D subsidy policy in China: An empirical examination of effect, priority, and specifics. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 135, 75–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.10.004