近年来,各级政府大幅加强了对企业博士后的扶持力度,但也随之面临滥用经费、成果转化效率低等质疑。本文运用文本分析方法,从A股上市公司财务报表附注中提取了企业博士后专项补助的细节信息,从而深入检验了该政策对国家创新体系的实际影响。研究发现,博士后补助有效提升了企业下一年度的专利申请数量,无论是否剔除创新含量较低的外观设计专利;本文还补充了区分具体专利类型与会计处理方式的额外证据。在经过一系列稳健性检验后,结论依然成立。本文从公司、地区、行业层面开展了调节效应分析,发现在内部控制无效、周边高校资源本身已较为丰富、所属行业具有劳动密集特征的情境中,博士后补助的创新促进作用相对微弱。进一步研究发现,获得博士后专项补助的公司,其专利的被引用频率、普遍性指数、利用性指数均值均显著上升,说明不仅企业创新意愿得到了增强,质量也得到了提高。最后,博士后补助还会通过供应链产生创新溢出效应。本研究提供了企业博士后补助能够切实激发实体经济创新活力的经验证据,从而对国家评估及持续优化博士后制度具有一定参考价值。

Public policies increasingly promote IUR (Industry-University-Research) collaborations but are often criticized for their suboptimal resource allocation. This study employed textual analysis to extract detailed information on government subsidies for corporate postdoctoral programs from the notes to financial statements of A-share listed companies, thereby examining their actual impact on the national innovation system. The findings revealed that postdoctoral subsidies effectively increase firms’ number of patent applications in the following year, and this effect persisted even after excluding design patents. Additional evidence was provided by distinguishing between specific patent types and accounting treatments. After a series of robustness tests, the above conclusions remain valid. This study further examined the moderating effects of firm-, regional-, and industrial-level factors. The results showed that the positive effect of postdoctoral subsidies on innovation is relatively weaker in contexts where internal controls are ineffective, in regions with preexisting high levels of university resources, or when the firm operates in a labor-intensive industry. Moreover, postdoctoral subsidies enhance a firm’s innovation quality, as reflected by a higher number of patent citations, greater patent generality, and a higher share of exploitative innovations, indicating that the subsidies not only bolster firms’ innovation willingness but also improve innovation quality. Significant spillover effects across the supply chain are also been identified. Overall, these findings offer empirical evidence that government subsidies for corporate postdoctoral programs can effectively stimulate the economy’s innovation vitality, thus will provide a reference for evaluating and continuously optimizing the postdoctoral system.