Research on the Impact of Government R&D Funding on Regional Innovation Quality: Analysis of Spatial Durbin Model Based on 283 Cities in China

Abstract

Based on the perspective of the regional innovation system, this study constructs an analytical framework for the influence of government R&D funding on regional innovation quality and uses 283 Chinese cities as research samples to empirically test the influence of government R&D funding methods such as subsidies and tax preferences on regional innovation quality by the spatial Durbin model. According to the study, China’s regional innovation quality has a positive spatial correlation. Subsidies can improve regional innovation quality, which is mainly realized by increasing the input of innovation resources from local direct innovation subjects, attracting the inflow of innovation resources from neighboring areas, and increasing the innovation support from local indirect innovation subjects. Besides, spatial competition for subsidies makes it beneficial to improve the regional innovation quality in neighboring regions, while the promotion effect of tax preferences is not significant. When considering the heterogeneity of the city location and administrative hierarchy, it shows that the government R&D funding cannot improve the innovation quality of the Eastern cities and higher-administrative-hierarchy cities, while it can improve that of the Middle and Western cities and general-administrative-hierarchy cities. Furthermore, government R&D funding widens the gap of regional innovation quality, which may be related to the existing “insufficient intervention” and “excessive intervention” of government R&D funding. This study provides insights into the implementation of R&D funding by the government to promote the development of regional innovation quality.

Influencing Factors of Enterprise R&D Investment: Post-Subsidy, Sustainability, and Heterogeneity

“…And since the dependent variable is a dichotomous variable, negative binomial regression is further used to verify the robustness. As can be seen from the results in Table 4, both cross-sectional linear regression (see (9) in Table 4) and negative binomial regression (see (10) in Table 4) have reached a relatively consistent conclusion: enterprise location and enterprise scale have a significant positive impact on the sustainability of R&D investment. Specifically, enterprises in high-tech development zones are more likely to invest sustainably in R&D, which is inseparable from regional support policies.…”

“…The innovation capacity of regions with more private enterprises is stronger than regions with more state-owned enterprises [8]. In addition, government funding will also increase the innovation gap between different regions [9].…”

Is air pollution detrimental to regional innovation? An empirical heterogeneity test based on Chinese cities

“…But the air quality of Dalian in the same province is good all year round (AQI < 60), which also promotes the generation of innovation in Dalian, with a high level of regional innovation (patent > 10). In addition, government expenditure on scientific research and technology and foreign direct investment can promote the level of regional innovation, mainly by increasing the input of innovation resources from local direct innovation subjects, attracting the inflow of innovation resources from neighboring areas, and increasing the innovation support from local indirect innovation subjects ( 43 ). As can be seen from column 2, teacher has a significant positive effect on regional innovation, as university teachers are the main talent reserve for innovation and contribute a lot to patents output.…”

“…Third, regional innovation requires the support and encouragement of the government. Overall, government subsidies can improve regional innovation quality ( 42 ), which is mainly realized by increasing the input of innovation resources from local direct innovation subjects, attracting the inflow of innovation resources from neighboring areas, and increasing the innovation support from local indirect innovation subjects ( 43 ). Porter and Linde ( 44 ) proposed that appropriate environmental regulation could prompt profit-maximizing enterprises to increase technological innovation to reduce their environmental costs and then achieve the improvement in economic performance.…”

Regional innovation paths selection in complex environments of China: A configurational perspective

“…The relationship between GS and innovation performance has received extensive attention from scholars while the research conclusions are inconsistent. Some scholars believe that government support such as R&D subsidies or tax incentives promote innovation while (Li & Wu, 2021) several scholars argue that the effect of GS on innovation performance is not significant or even negative (Bedu & Vanderstocken, 2020). The inconsistency may derive from the differences of research sample, context or objects (Hong et al, 2016).…”