摘要
本文以上市公司周边银行分支机构数量作为代理变量,从金融地理结构视角探究信贷资源可得性对企业创新活动的影响。研究发现:以邻近的银行网点数量为代表的信贷资源可得性越高反而抑制了企业的研发投入,并且这种抑制效应在国有企业和大型企业中更为明显;同时,这种抑制效应主要源自国有大型银行,而股份制银行和地方性中小银行的信贷投放更积极有为,能够促进企业的创新活动。机制检验发现:信贷资源会通过加剧企业的“过度负债”抑制研发投入;进一步,企业可获得的信贷资源越多却并未增加研发投入的原因在于进行了更多的“过度投资”,并将更多的信贷资源投入到房地产行业。本文的研究为我国近年来企业杠杆率高企、产能过剩却又创新不足等现象提供了新的证据,也为金融供给侧改革提供了政策参考。
How does credit availability from banks affect firms'innovative activities?The answer to this question is crucial to unravel how financial development can effectively promote a country's economic growth.The empirical evidence suggests that financial development has a positive effect on firm innovation(Benfratello et al.,2008;Cai&Dong,2016).However,financial development has been measured in terms of the overall amount of credit(Guiso et al.,2004;Ji,2013)or the amount of credit at the regional level(Xie&Fang,2011;Tang&Wu,2015).Few studies have focused on the geographic network of bank branching,which gives us rich variations at the firm level.Based on the premise that distance erodes banks'ability to acquire borrower-specific information,Hauswald&Marquez(2006)formally analyzed lending relationships under locationally differentiated information.They proposed that banks derive cost advantages from being geographically closer to the borrowing firm,as it is easier for banks to maintain loan relationships with firms that are closer to them.This means that the geographical network of bank branching that determines the availability of firms'credit resources also affects innovation activities and the growth of the economy.China's financial system is characterized by a typical bank-dominant system.At the end of 2018,China's banking assets(268 trillion)accounted for nearly 90%of the country's total financial assets(300 trillion).Outside of financial centers such as Beijing,Shanghai,and Shenzhen,China's financial geographic structure is largely determined by the layout of bank branches.Therefore,the financial resources that a firm can obtain mainly depend on the number of bank branches nearby.In addition,China and other countries such as the United States,Europe,and Japan have adopted easy monetary policies to stimulate economic growth since the 2008 financial crisis.However,the easy monetary policy,in the form of large amounts of bank credit,has not prompted firms to accelerate innovation or increase R&D investment.Instead,a large number of firms have leveraged production capacity using“cheap”bank credit resources.In February 2019,China began a financial reform designed to better serve the real economy's structural transformation and upgrading under the guidance of a government proposal to“deepen the structural reform of the financial supply and better serve the real economy”.Based on this background,this paper studies how the availability of credit,measured in the geographical organization of the bank system,affects firms'innovation activities in the real economy.Using the number of bank branches around the listed company as a proxy for access to bank credit,we investigate the link between access to bank credit resources and firm innovation using a panel fixed-effect model.Our results show that firms with more bank branches nearby have less R&D investment,particularly state-owned firms and large firms.The results are robust to the addition of more control variables and comparison to a placebo test.Further,the negative relationship between access to bank credit and firm innovation is mainly driven by large state-owned banks,whereas joint-stock banks and local small and medium-sized banks have positive effects on firm innovation.In addition,we confirm that proactive leverage is the mechanism through which access to bank credit affects firm innovation.Finally,firms with more credit availability tend to overinvest and divert more credit to investment in the real estate sector.Our findings explain why firms that have better credit availability reduce R&D investment.China's financial reform has been steadily pushing forward,given its importance for economic development.This paper focuses on China's geographic network of bank branches at the micro level,and is the first study to detect its negative effect on firm innovation,which is important for economic development.It also shows various mechanisms through which access to credit affects firm innovation,such as proactive leverage,overinvestment,and investment in the real estate industry.Whereas previous studies measure the availability of financial resources overall or at the regional level,the micro level measure,in terms of bank-firm distance and financial geographic structure,allows us to better investigate the mechanisms.We thus contribute to the literature on finance and firm innovation.In addition,our results have implications for financial reforms in developing countries worldwide that are characterized by bank-led financial systems.
作者
蔡庆丰
陈熠辉
林焜
CAI Qingfeng;CHEN Yihui;LIN Kun(School of Economics,Xiamen University)
出处
《经济研究》
CSSCI
北大核心
2020年第10期124-140,共17页
Economic Research Journal
基金
国家社会科学基金重大项目(15ZDA028)
国家自然科学基金面上项目(71373219)
中央高校基本科研业务费专项资金(20720181109)的资助。
关键词
信贷资源可得性
企业创新
金融地理结构
过度负债
过度投资
Access to Credit Availability
Innovation
Geographic Network of Banks
Proactive Leverage
Overinvestment
