Jiang Jing, Shao Tianrun and Wang Jue: Does Differential Industrial Policy Encourage Innovation? : Empirical Evidence from China's Provincial-level Government Work Reports

Release time:2024-09-15Author: Jiang Jing, Shao Tianrun and Wang Jue

Abstract: Based on the background of national industrial policies supporting enterprise innovation under the new nationwide system, this paper uses Python to extract industrial policies from 310 government work reports of 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions from 2011 to 2020 through keyword search. The two-way fixed effect method is used to study the influence of different policies, namely supply, demand and institution-oriented industrial policies on enterprise innovation. The results are as follows. Firstly, there are obvious differences in the impact of industrial policies on enterprise innovation. Supply-oriented industrial policies promote enterprise innovation, while demand-oriented and institution-oriented industrial policies inhibit enterprise innovation. Secondly, based on the analysis of different ownership of enterprises, supply-oriented industrial policies have a significant incentive effect on private enterprise innovation, while institution-oriented industrial policies inhibit private enterprise innovation. Based on the analysis of different life cycles of enterprises, the supply-oriented industrial policies promote the innovation of mature enterprises. Thirdly, the mechanism test shows that supply-oriented industrial policies can promote enterprise innovation by reducing factor market distortion, which is regulated by market concentration. Institutional-oriented industrial policies increase factor market distortion and inhibit enterprise innovation. The above conclusions not only provide experience and evidence for China's industrial policies to gradually complete the transformation from supply-oriented to institution-oriented, but also help the government to give full play to the market competition mechanism when formulating and implementing industrial policies and building innovation institutional environment, and make the industrial policies after transformation better serve enterprise innovation and economic development.