开发区设立能否助力企业“走出去”——来自微观数据的准自然实验

Does the Development Zone Policy Promote Chinese Enterprises to Go Out——Based on the Empirical Evidence of Chinese A-share Listed Companies

本文以开发区设立为准自然试验,基于2002—2018年上市公司数据,采用渐进式双重差分法研究开发区设立对企业对外直接投资的影响。研究结果显示,开发区设立显著促进了企业对外直接投资。机制检验结果表明,开发区设立通过缓解融资约束和促进生产率提升两种渠道助力企业对外直接投资。异质性检验结果表明:开发区设立对国有企业、规模较大的企业、制造业行业的企业、有海外经历高管企业的对外直接投资促进作用更大,且经济技术开发区比高新技术开发区的政策效果更为显著;国家级开发区政策相较于省级开发区政策对企业对外直接投资的促进作用更显著。

Based on data of China A-share listed companies from 2001 to 2019, this paper built a quasi-natural experiment with the establishment of the Development Zone, and used the progressive difference-in-differences method to empirically test the effects of development zones on the outward foreign direct investment(OFDI) of enterprises. The results show that the development zone policy significantly promotes the OFDI of enterprises. The results of the mechanism test show that the establishment of the development zone helps enterprises to invest directly in foreign countries through two channels: easing financing constraints and driving productivity improvement. Heterogeneity analysis finds that: the policies of development zones have a more significant impact on the OFDI behavior of state-owned enterprises, large-scale enterprises, service enterprises and enterprises with overseas experience. Moreover, the results in Economic and Technological Development Zones are more obvious than those in High-tech Development Zones. And the acceleration of enterprises’ OFDI in National Development Zones is more significant than that of Provincial Development Zones.