僵尸企业与企业创新:银行竞争的视角

Zombie Firms and Corporate Innovation:The Perspective of Bank Competition

本文基于中国工业企业数据库、企业专利数据库以及银保监会披露的银行业各省级分支机构数据,在银行存在地域分割的背景下,实证分析了僵尸企业对同一省份内其他正常企业创新产出的影响,以及地方银行竞争如何影响上述关系,并进一步分析了僵尸企业抑制正常企业创新的作用机制。本文研究结果表明:同一省份内僵尸企业占比越高,省内其他正常企业的创新产出越低,并且银行竞争程度从总体上强化了僵尸企业的这种负外部性影响。从机制上来说,僵尸企业挤出了同省份其他正常企业的信贷资源,加剧了企业的融资约束程度,进而减少了企业创新产出。本文的研究丰富了关于僵尸企业负外部性的相关文献,补充了僵尸企业影响正常企业创新的区域内信贷挤出机制,同时也为银行地域分割的影响提供了有力证据。

In recent years,overcapacity and low economic efficiency have gradually become the shackles of China's economic development,which has been further exacerbated by the US-China trade frictions.The 2019 Global Innovation Index report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO)ranks China 14th,which is clearly out of proportion to China's second largest economy in the world.Therefore,in response to the changes of current events,it is urgent to improve the status of China as an important node in the global industrial chain and promote the transformation of China's economy from“Made in China”to“Quality in China”.Therefore,guiding corporate innovation is the key step.In view of the regional segmentation of bank credit in China,the crowding out effect of credit resources among firms in different regions in the same industry may not be obvious when the provinces are far away.However,there is often a certain degree of credit competition between firms in the same region.So,this paper attempts to study and answer:will zombie firms affect the innovation activities of other normal firms in the same province?The existing literature has found that bank competition can promote corporate innovation,but the formation of zombie firms is often inseparable from the protection of local governments and the support of local banks.When bank competition and government intervention overlap,what impact will bank competition in the region have?Is it to alleviate the negative externality of zombie firms or to strengthen its negative externality?Therefore,based on the data of China's industrial enterprise database,enterprise patent database and provincial branches of banking industry disclosed by China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission from 1998 to 2009,this paper empirically analyzes the impact of zombie firms on the innovation output of normal firms in the same province,and how the competition of local banks affects the above-mentioned relations,and further analyzes the mechanism of zombie firms restraining corporate innovation.The results show that:(1)the increase of zombie firms will inhibit the innovation output of normal firms in the same province,and state-owned firms and large firms are less inhibited by zombie firms in the same province.Because state-owned firms and large firms have more abundant financing channels,relatively abundant funds and less financing constraints,they are less affected by the negative externalities of zombie firms.However,non-state-owned firms and small firms are more affected.Therefore,zombie firms'inhibition on the innovation output of normal firms is bigger due to the crowd out effect of bank credit in the same region.(2)Bank competition in the province plays a moderating role in the process of zombie firms restraining normal firms’innovation.In areas where bank competition is more intense,the negative externalities of zombie firms are stronger.Further study found that:in the regions with more large bank branches,bank competition can more inhibit the negative externalities of zombie firms,which may be due to the strong risk-taking ability and higher independence of large commercial banks.However,the areas with more urban commercial banks will intensify the inhibition of zombie firms,which may be because urban commercial banks tend to have weak risk-taking capacity and are more likely to be interfered by local governments.This study enriches the literature on the negative externalities of zombie firms,complements the provincial credit crowding out mechanism that zombie firms affect normal corporate innovation,and provides strong evidence for the impact of regional segmentation of banks.In conclusion,in order to accelerate the structural transformation of China's economic development,we need to create a good ecological environment for corporation innovation.On the one hand,it is necessary to speed up the disposal and clearing of zombie firms,reduce the interference of local governments on banks,dredge and increase the financing channels of normal firms,expand the financing sources of firms,and improve the construction of capital market;on the other hand,it is also necessary to support the development of new models such as Fintech to effectively reduce the information asymmetry between banks and firms,To ease the financing constraints of SMEs'innovation.