税收激励与企业创新——来自“营改增”的经验证据

作为我国金融供给侧改革的重要举措,营改增显著降低了企业税负,但能否有效激励企业创新尚存在争议。基于2012—2017年A股上市公司数据,采用双重差分模型,研究发现“营改增”虽然有助于刺激企业增加研发投入,但专利产出并未同步增加,导致企业创新效率下降。影响机制分析表明,部分研发投入转化为创新产出和营业利润能力较差的企业也盲目增加研发投入,从而降低了创新效率。此外,研究还发现“营改增”对企业创新投入和创新效率的影响仅具有短期刺激作用。进一步地,在民营企业和融资约束较严重的企业中,“营改增”对企业创新效率下降的影响更显著。因此,政府要关注税收激励对企业创新效率的影响,建立鼓励企业创新的长效机制。

Tax Incentives and Corporate Innovation:Empirical Evidence from “VAT Reform”

As an important measure of China's financial supply-side reform,“VAT Reform”has significantly reduced the tax burden of firms,but it is still controversial whether it can stimulate corporate innovation effectively.Based on the data of A-share listed firms during the years from 2012 to 2017,using the difference-in-differences model,this paper shows that although“VAT Reform”helps stimulate firms to increase R&D investment,patent output does not increase simultaneously,leading to the decline of corporate innovation efficiency.The analysis of influencing mechanism shows that some firms with poor ability to convert R&D investments into innovation output and profits also blindly increase the R&D investment,thus reducing the innovation efficiency.In addition,it is also found that“VAT Reform”has only a short-term stimulus effect on corporate R&D investment and innovation efficiency.Furthermore,among private firms and the firms with severe financing constraints,“VAT Reform”has a more significant impact on the decline of corporate innovation efficiency.Therefore,the government should pay concern to the impact of tax incentives on corporate innovation efficiency and establish a long-term mechanism to encourage corporate innovation.