Research on How Tax Incentives Contribute to Digital Transformation of Enterprises
Enterprise digital transformation is both the main way of deep integration of the digital economy and real economy,and an crucial support to promote high-quality economic development.This paper takes the pre-tax de-duction policy of employee education funds in 2018 as a quasi-natural experiment and uses the Difference-in-Differ-ences method to examine the impact and mechanism of the policy on the digital transformation of enterprises.The study finds that the pre-tax deduction policy of employee education funds has a significant role in promoting the digital transformation of enterprises,and the policy effect is more obvious in manufacturing enterprises,labor-inten-sive enterprises,and enterprises with higher cost rates.The analysis of the mechanism of action shows that the pre-tax deduction policy affects the digital transformation of enterprises mainly through three paths:optimizing enter-prise human capital,increasing enterprise R&D investment,and improving enterprise innovation output.Further dis-cussion also found that digital transformation can significantly promote the improvement of enterprise labor produc-tivity.Therefore,further improving the pre-tax deduction policy for employee education expenses will help empower enterprises to transform and upgrade digitally.
Enterprise Digital TransformationTax PreferencePre-tax Deduction of Employee Education Funds