融资约束、现金平滑与企业R&D投资——来自中国制造业上市公司的证据

Financial Constraints,Cash Smoothing and Firms' R&D Investment:Evidence from Chinese Listed Manufacturing Firms

R＆D投资是企业技术创新的源泉，但是，其资金来源受到企业内部资金水平和外部融资条件的制约。本文以2002—2010年我国制造业上市公司为样本，实证研究了融资约束对企业R＆D投资的影响，并考察了企业的现金持有行为对R＆D投资的平滑效应。研究结果表明，融资约束企业的R＆D投资系统地依赖于内部现金流，而非融资约束企业的R＆D投资更多地依靠债务融资，对内部现金流的依赖性不明显。进一步研究发现，融资约束企业持有现金对R＆D投资具有平滑效应，并降低了R＆D投资与内部现金流的敏感性，但这种现金平滑效应在非融资约束企业中表现得不明显。研究结论拓展了关于融资约束与企业投资行为的研究，并加深了对企业持有现金进行流动眭管理的理解。

Technological innovation plays an important role in China＇s sustainable economic growth. R＆D in vestment activities are the most important source for enterprises＇ technological innovation, but the funds of R＆D in vestment are subjected to the enterprises＇ level of internal funding and external financial condition. Therefore, re searching the effect of external financing constraints on R＆D investment behavior is of important theoretical and practical significance. Based on the microdata of 221 manufacturing listed firms in China during the period of 2002 to 2010, this pa per examines the relationship between firms＇ financing constraints and R＆D investment with dynamic panel data models, and also investigates the smoothing effect of companies＇ cash holdings behavior on R＆D investment. We at tempt to answer the following two key questions：In China, whether R＆D investments in manufacturing firms depend on internal cash flow, and whether the behavior of cash holdings can smooth R＆D investment. On this basis, this pa per may have three contributions to related research. Firstly, to extend the research field from the relationship be tween financing constraints and fixed capital investment to the relationship between financing constraints and R＆D investment. Secondly, to pay special attention to the effect of companies＇ internal cash on R＆D investment, which in creases the understanding of the determinants of R＆D investment. Thirdly, to enrich the research on firms＇ liquidity value. The empirical result shows that ： Firstly, internal cash flow provides the main source of funding for R＆D invest ment for Chinese manufacturing firms as a whole. External financing constraints is a common phenomenon among SMEs, young firms, and private holdings firms, but it＇s not a problem for big, mature, and central or local government holdings firms. For those firms with financing constraints, internal cash flow is an important determinant for R＆D inn vestment. But for those firms without financing constraints, R＆D investment depends more on external debt financing instead of internal cash flow. Secondly, Smoothing effects of cash holdings on R＆D investment are obvious among the firms with financing constraints, whose cash reserves are usually used to alleviate the adverse effect of cash flow fluctuations on R＆D investment so that high adjustment costs resulting from R＆D investment fluctuations can be avoided to a large extent. In contrast, the smoothing effects of cash holdings are failed to be found among the firms without financing constraints. This gap indicates that firms with financing constraints are relatively more active and discreet in liquidity management. To test the robustness of empirical results above, we consider following tests. First, to control the industry differ ence by classifying manufacturing firms. Secondly, to introduce a new standard to divide firms into without financing constraints. All robustness tests indicate that there is no substantial change in bo groups with and th the value and significance for main variables. The according policy recommendations as follows：Firstly, some policies should be introduced to motivate com mercial banks to increase loans on R＆D investment projects for smallandmediumsized, young, and private firms. Loans threshold for these firms should also be lowered to make the debt financing more available to them. Secondly,financial institutions like commercial banks should be encouraged to cooperate closely with SMEs, young firms, and private firms and build stable bankfirm relationship, through which reduce the information asym metry between them, thus increase banks credit availability to these firms for their R＆D projects. Thirdly, it is neces sary for government to take actions to encourage guarantee for R＆D projects of SMEs, young firms, and private firms, and when necessary, government should directly grant a full or part guarantee of loans to these firms＇ R＆D in vestment projects. The conclusion also reflects the fact that China＇s financial system hasn＇t eliminate financial constrain to R＆D investment for some firms from the side, especially for the smallandmediumsized, young, and private firms. From this point of view, it＇s imperative to accelerate the marketoriented reform of China＇s financial system, develop the multilevel capital market. Also, there are two possible directions for future research releted. First, to introduce finan cial development or financial environment index into the analysis framework of financial constraints and R＆D invest ment. Second, to link the firms＇ behaviors of cash smoothing to their corporate governance structures, investigating how corporate governance factors would affect their cash holdings activities.