Fiscal Target Pressure,Tax Efforts and Enterprise Technological Innovation
The impact of local fiscal pressures on enterprise technological innovation has consistently been a focal point of scholarly interest.This paper collects data from local government reports,specifically focusing on fiscal revenue growth objectives,and uses the disparity between these targets at both the prefectural and provincial levels as a measure of local fiscal stress.A greater discrepancy in fiscal targets across provinces and cities highlights the competitive nature of local governments'fiscal objectives setting process.Approaching from a unique perspective of local fiscal target pressures,this study provides a theoretical framework to understand their influence on technological innovation endeavors.Through an empirical analysis employing micro-data from A-share companies listed in China,this paper explores the intricate relationship between fiscal strategies and innovation,thereby contributing to the academic discussion on this subject.The study reveals a pronounced negative correlation between the pressure of fiscal targets and the volume of corporate invention patent filings.This adverse effect remains robust through various methodological adjustments,including variable substitutions,the exclusion of outliers and specific years,and the accounting for the influence of municipalities directly governed by the central government and sub-provincial cities.Moreover,this negative correlation sustains its significance in negative binomial regression analyses.To address potential concerns of endogeneity,instrumental variable techniques and difference-in-differences methodologies were applied,further affirming the causal link between fiscal pressure and technological innovation within enterprises.Mechanism analysis sheds light on the dual nature of fiscal target pressure:on one side,it encourages an increase in fiscal allocation for science and technology expenditures,potentially nurturing enterprise innovation.On the flip side,it escalates local government efforts for higher tax collection,thereby increasing the real tax burden on enterprises and consequently impeding their capacity for innovation.Predominantly,the adverse effects of fiscal pressure on enterprise technological innovation eclipse the positive influences.Diving deeper,heterogeneity analysis shows that fiscal target pressure notably disrupts the innovation endeavors of firms with strong innovation properties,while its inhibitive impact is milder on firms with lesser innovation capabilities.Furthermore,the innovation pursuits within technology-intensive sectors are particularly vulnerable to fiscal target pressure,unlike those in labor-intensive and capital-intensive sectors,where its effects are not as substantial.An exploration of fiscal surpluses and deficits across regions indicates that the repressive effect of fiscal target pressure on corporate technological innovation is mostly observed in areas grappling with fiscal deficits,with this trend being less pronounced in regions enjoying fiscal surpluses.
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
