税收激励促进了企业数字化转型吗?——基于前瞻性有效税率的经验证据

Does Tax Incentives Promote the Digital Transformation of Enterprises? Empirical Evidence Based on Forward-Looking Effective Tax Rate

数字化转型已成为企业的发展趋势,从政策工具视角探寻企业数字化转型的促进因素尤为必要。本文选取2008-2020年沪深A股非金融类上市公司数据,以前瞻性有效税率为切入点,实证检验了税收激励对企业数字化转型的影响及其作用机制。研究发现,税收激励对企业数字化转型有促进作用,其中“融资约束缓解效应”和“创业导向强化效应”是两个潜在的作用渠道。进一步研究表明,当前阶段税收激励的效果主要集中在数字化投资转型,并且税收激励对外部融资依赖度更高、所处创新环境更好、高新产业、管制性产业的企业数字化转型促进效果更加明显;此外,税收激励与财政激励之间存在交互效应。本文的研究不仅证实了税收激励对企业数字化转型的促进作用,而且为加大“减税降费”改革力度、推动企业高质量、跨越式发展提供了重要的参考。

Digital transformation has become the development trend of enterprises. It is particularly necessary to explore the promoting factors of enterprise digital transformation from the perspective of policy tools. This paper selects the data of A-share non-financial listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2008 to 2020, and takes the forward-looking effective tax rate as the starting point to empirically test the impact of tax incentives on enterprise digital transformation and its mechanism. The study found that tax incentives can promote the digital transformation of enterprises, among which "financing constraint mitigation effect" and "entrepreneurship orientation strengthening effect" are two potential channels. Further research shows that the effect of tax incentives at the current stage mainly focuses on digital investment transformation, and the promotion effect of tax incentives on digital transformation is more obvious for enterprises with higher dependence on external financing, high-tech industries and regulatory industries. In addition, there is an interactive effect between fiscal incentives and tax incentives. The study not only confirms the role of tax incentives in promoting the digital transformation of enterprises, but also provides an important reference for strengthening the reform of "tax reduction and fee reduction" and promoting the high-quality and leapfrog development of enterprises.