经济波动对企业研发投入的影响——来自中国上市公司的证据

Influence of Economic Fluctuation on Corporate R&D Input:Evidences from China’s Listed Enterprises

在纳入短期投资的融资约束和技术机会的基础上,拓展现有的企业研发周期性经典模型,以此考察中国情景下短期经济波动影响企业研发行为的作用机理,并基于中国上市公司2007-201 5年的数据,使用混合多元回归模型和工具变量法对理论命题进行实证检验。研究结果显示,不论是短期的宏观波动,还是企业的市场需求波动,均与企业研发强度呈负相关关系,说明企业研发强度表现出逆周期性。宏观经济波动与企业研发强度的负相关关系主要体现在经济繁荣期,而微观经济波动与企业研发强度的负相关关系主要体现在市场需求衰退期。进一步研究发现,融资约束限制了企业进行调整的能力,弱化了经济波动与企业研发强度的负向关系,而更强的技术机会则对企业产生了激励作用,强化了企业研发强度的逆周期性。

Through incorporating short-term investments into the financing constraints and technological opportunities, this paper expands the existing periodical classic model of corporate R&D to examine the effect mechanism of short-term economic fluctuations on corporate R&D behavior in China. Based on the data of China's listed companies over the period of 2007-2015, it conducts an empirical test on the theoretical propositions by using the mixed multiple regression model and the instrumental variable method. The results show that both the short-term macro-fluctuation and the market demand fluctuation of enterprises have a negative correlation with corporates' R&D intensity, indicating that corporates' R&D intensity is countercyclical. The negative relationship between macro-economic fluctuation and corporate R&D intensity mainly appears in the economic prosperity period, while the negative relationship between micro-economic fluctuation and corporate R&D intensity mainly appears in the market recession period. Further study finds out that financing constraints will limit the ability of enterprises to adjust and hence weaken the negative relationship between economic fluctuations and corporate R&D intensity, while stronger technological opportunities have an incentive effect on corporate and thus strengthen the counter cyclicality of corporates' R&D intensity.