从“契约环境”到“信用政策”:社会信用文化与创新知识溢出

From “Contractual Environment” to “Credit Policy”: Social Credit Culture and Innovation Knowledge Spillover

作为一种具有明显正外部性的非正式制度,信用文化对城市创新发展的影响正成为重要的研究课题。本文基于中国各地级市的专利被引用数据,从社会信用文化“软”约束的独特视角出发,重点检验了社会信用文化对创新知识溢出的影响机制。实证发现:社会失信环境阻碍了城市创新知识溢出,不论是个人失信指标还是企业失信指标都验证了这一结论,尤其是在发达的大型城市更为明显;进一步分析表明,社会失信环境下企业融资约束程度的提高显著抑制了城市创新知识溢出的水平,而把人力资本管理与人才信用建设纳入国家发展战略中,进一步缓解创新知识的外溢“壁垒”;与此同时,考察失信名单公开的“冲击”效应和信用城市试点的“示范”效应,应用DID和DDD的检验方法,证实了信用政策能有效缓解失信对城市创新知识外溢产生的阻碍作用。研究结论对于建立健全事前甄别和失信惩戒制度,完善社会信用基础性法律法规,发挥政府诚信示范作用,从而营造优良的创新知识溢出环境具有启示意义。

Economic growth has long been a closely watched issue for economists and policymakers.In the study of neoclassical economic theory,it is never the product of exogenous factors,but is triggered by a new combination of endogenous conditions and production factors,which is often called the process of“creative destruction”.As Solow points out,technological innovation is not only an important factor in promoting economic growth,but also a source of power for building an innovative nation.How to promote innovative development,solve the“stuck neck”technical problems in production applications,and achieve high-quality economic development is the key focus of building a new development pattern.Technological innovation is the driving force and source of a country’s sustained economic growth,and for technological progress,what is more important is the“secondary creation”of innovation results and the spatial dissemination of knowledge.Under the background of the“new normal”,a good contract environment and credit culture are the premise and foundation for the operation of the market economy,as well as a favorable guarantee for promoting socio-economic development and technological innovation,and an important tool to promote the spillover of urban innovation knowledge.As an informal system with obvious positive externalities,the impact of credit culture on urban innovation and development is becoming a research topic that economists are keen on.Based on the patent citation data of various cities in China,this paper focuses on examining the influence mechanism of social credit culture on the spillover of innovative knowledge from the unique perspective of the“soft”constraint of social credit culture.Empirical results show that the social untrustworthy environment seriously hinders the level of urban innovation knowledge spillover,and both the indicators of personal untrustworthiness and the indicators of corporate untrustworthiness perfectly verify this conclusion,especially in developed large cities.The robustness test results further support the core conclusions of the impact of social credit culture on urban innovation knowledge spillover by using the tool variable method to overcome the endogenous problem,replacing the proxy variable of urban innovation knowledge spillover,and replacing the proxy variable of social untrustworthiness level.Further analysis shows that the improvement of corporate financing constraints in the environment of social untrustworthiness significantly inhibits the level of urban innovation knowledge spillover,and the inclusion of human capital management and talent credit construction into the national development strategy further alleviates the“barrier”of innovation knowledge spillover.At the same time,the“shock”effect of the disclosure of the list of untrustworthy and the“demonstration”effect of the pilot project of credit cities are examined,and the test methods similar to DID and DDD are applied to confirm that credit policy can effectively alleviate the hindrance effect of untrustworthiness on urban knowledge spillover.The spillover capacity of innovative knowledge depends not only on the degree of regional economic development,but also on credit culture factors.Good credit level is not only an important symbol of social civilization,but also an indispensable intangible capital for urban technological innovation and knowledge spillover.The research conclusions of this paper have the following policy implications:First,establish and complete systems for prior screening and punishment for untrustworthiness,ensure the establishment of a social credit system,and improve a favorable credit culture environment for urban innovation knowledge spillover.Second,improve basic laws and regulations on social credit,strengthen the legal supervision system for credit,and run administration in accordance with law throughout the entire process of credit services,providing adequate judicial safeguards for urban innovation knowledge spillover.Third,give play to the government’s role in demonstrating creditworthiness,enhance members’awareness of creditworthiness,create an excellent credit environment,and establish the concept of creditworthiness culture for urban innovation knowledge spillover.