科研管理

科研管理 ›› 2021, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (7): 40-49.

• 论文 • 上一篇    下一篇

行政审批制度改革与企业创新投入

何晓斌1,柳建坤1,张云亮2   

  1. 1.清华大学 社会科学学院，北京100084；
    2.西南财经大学社会发展研究院，四川 成都611130

  • 收稿日期:2020-04-28 修回日期:2020-07-29 出版日期:2021-07-20 发布日期:2021-07-19
  • 通讯作者: 柳建坤
  • 基金资助:
    国家社会科学基金一般项目:“中国民营企业的政治关联类型与创新绩效研究”（19BSH151，2019.08—2022.06）；清华大学自主科研计划文科专项（19THZWLJ32，2020.01—2022.12）。

The administrative approval system reform and innovation investment of private enterprises

He Xiaobin1, Liu Jiankun1, Zhang Yunliang2   

  1. 1. School of Social Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; 
    2. Research Institute of Social Development, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, Sichuan, China
  • Received:2020-04-28 Revised:2020-07-29 Online:2021-07-20 Published:2021-07-19

摘要： 本文利用2010年全国私营企业调查数据考察了行政审批制度改革对企业创新投入的影响。实证结果表明：城市设立行政审批中心显著提升了当地企业进行创新投入的可能性和投入水平，但这一政策效果仅存在于企业主没有从政经历、处于低壁垒行业和处于东部地区的企业。进一步分析发现，缓解企业面临的资源约束、减少政府干预以及改善企业主的主观感知是行政审批制度改革促进企业创新投入的机制。这启示相关部门应加大行政审批制度改革力度，为民营企业进行技术创新投入创造良好的行政环境。

关键词: 民营企业, 创新投入, 行政环境, 行政审批制度改革

Abstract:     The power of controlling and redistributing key economic and social resources mainly is maintained by the administrative approval system in China. The restraining effect of the system on the market economy is apparent, which hinders the further development of market-oriented reform. This problem has motivated the central government to carry out a large-scale reform of the administrative approval system since 2001. During the reform, local governments′ service functions have improved significantly by modifying, cancelling and delegating approval items, simplifying approval procedures, and shortening approval time. As an important institutional innovation to adjust the relationship between government and market, the administrative approval system reform provides an opportunity to examine the relationship between the administrative environment and the innovation investment decision-making of private enterprises. 
     This paper examines effects of the administrative approval system reform on the innovation investment of private enterprises drawing on the data from the Chinese Private Enterprise Survey in 2010. It was found that the establishment of city administrative approval centers significantly facilitated the innovation investment of Chinese private enterprises. This relationship remains after a series of robustness and endogeneity checks, including the analysis with Propensity Score Matching and adding more omitted variables. In addition, this effect was only presented in enterprises whose owners did not have government working experiences, and in enterprises located in industries with lower entry barriers and in the eastern area of China. Further analyses revealed that relieving the financial constraints, reducing government interventions, and improving the perceived institutional environment and social status of owners were the mediating mechanisms that played between the administrative approval reform and innovation investment of private enterprises. Therefore, this study suggests the related government departments further promote the administrative reforms and create a good atmosphere for the Innovation investment of Chinese private enterprise. 
     The research contributions of this paper are in the following three aspects: Firstly, this paper could deepen the understanding of the relationship between institutional environment and innovation investment. Compared with the existing literature which mainly focuses on the overall institutional environment or certain element of institutional environment, such as legal environment, this paper focuses on the administrative environment that is another important element of institutional environment, and provides a new theoretical interpretation for the process of decision-making on innovation investment; Secondly, this paper could enrich the literature concerning the impact of the administrative approval system reform. Previous studies have mainly focused on summarizing the experiences and lessons of the administrative environment reform. While there were some literatures examining the impact of the administrative approval system reform on the production and operation activities of enterprises, the impact on enterprise Innovation investment is rarely touched. This paper provides empirical evidence on the positive relationship between the administrative approval system reform and enterprise innovation investment. Thirdly, by examining the different effects of the administrative approval system reform on innovation investment based on entrepreneurs′ political experiences, the level of industry entry barrier and the region where enterprises are located, this paper shows that the effects of the administrative approval system reform on the Innovation investment of private enterprises are not homogeneous, which has practical implications for improving the policy design and marginal benefits of policy making in China. 

Key words: private enterprise, innovation investment, administrative environment, administrative approval system reform