Abstract:  In order to encourage the development of high-tech industries, the high-tech identification policy was firstly promulgated in 2008 and revised in 2016, and it gives policy benefits to the enterprises that satisfy the judicial recognition. However, some enterprises manipulate the collection scope of R&D expenses to obtain the policy benefits, resulting in loss of national fiscal and tax resources and the benefits of real high-tech enterprises. Therefore, the research of R&D manipulation is helpful to improve the high-tech identification policy, and has an important practical significance for the development of high-tech industries.However, previous studies of innovation policy had explained mainly from the perspective of policy tools such as the public subsidy and tax incentive, but rarely focused on the high-tech identification policy that has different research conclusions. For instance, Sun et al. (2016) believed that the title of high-tech enterprise can obtain policy benefits such as fiscal support and financing convenience, which stimulate enterprise to engage in technological innovation activities. Xu (2017) proved this stimulation by using the data of A-share listed private high-tech companies. However, Yang et al. (2017) found that high-tech identification policy has a stimulation distortion effect, which induces enterprises to reach the R&D threshold by R&D manipulating, resulting in the decline of R&D performance. Therefore, the effect of high-tech identification policy needs to be tested. Furthermore, there still have two points that need to be studied further. Firstly, it is the study on different stages of high-tech identification policy. Enterprises need to participate in review-trail before the expiration of high-tech enterprise certification. According to the statistics given in this paper, the total enterprise technological innovation efficiency is increased by 16% after the first-trail of high-tech identification, but no significant changes occurred after the review-trail of high-tech identification. However, previous studies only regard passing the first-trail of high-tech identification as a condition, ignoring the difference of policy effect in different identification stages. Secondly, it is the study on tax avoidance motivation of R&D manipulation. Previous studies proved that enterprises manipulated R&D expenses in order to reach the R&D threshold. However, according to enterprise tax law, it can be additional deducted whenever R&D investment is capitalized or expensed, which means that the enterprises that have already reached the R&D threshold also have a possibility to manipulate R&D expenses for decreasing the tax burden. Firstly, this papertheoretically divided R&D manipulation into two types by the motivation of manipulation. One type is called target achieved R&D manipulation. Enterprises with target achieved motivation manipulate R&D expenses, so that they can obtain the policy benefits from the title of high-tech enterprise. These Enterprises actually did not reach R&D threshold, or even not engaged in R&D activities. Based on the tradeoff between policy benefits and violation costs, such enterprises control their R&D expenses around R&D threshold. The other type is called Tax avoided R&D manipulation. The enterprises with tax avoided motivation were reached R&D threshold, manipulating R&D expenses to decrease the tax burden. These enterprises regard R&D expenses as a tax avoidance approach, even though they can obtain generous policy benefits. Especially in the fierce market competition, enterprises are more incentive to keep profits by decreasing the tax burden. Therefore, such enterprises report that the R&D investment is much higher than actual situation, and the degree of manipulation is more than the target achieved type. Then the paper proposes four hypotheses: H1a, there is a positive effect of high-tech identification policy on enterprise technological innovation efficiency; H1b, there is a negative effect of high-tech identification policy on enterprise technological innovation efficiency; H2, R&D manipulation has a negative moderating effect on the relation between high-tech identification policy and enterprise technological innovation efficiency; H3, target achieved R&D manipulation is more significant on the firms which are outside the high-tech development zone or have a higher sale, whereas tax avoided R&D manipulation is more significant on the firms which are inside the high-tech development zone or have a lower sale. Finally the study applies the empirical research paradigm based on the innovation data of Chinese high-tech listed enterprises from 2008-2017. The empirical results are as follow: (1) High-tech identification policy is an important factor for enterprise technological innovation efficiency. Firm can obtain more innovation resources and better market signals after passing the high-tech identification, which can improve enterprise technological innovation efficiency; (2) Target achieved R&D manipulations and tax avoided R&D manipulations are not conducive to the stimulation of high-tech identification policy. Both R&D manipulations increase R&D expenses by including the expenses that not belong to R&D activities into the R&D expense column, or purchasing the equipment that is not in operation, which reduce the allocation efficiency of enterprise innovation resources. Meanwhile, executives use the regulatory vacuum and information advantages of R&D manipulation to realize their personal benefits, resulting in short-sighted decision-making; and (3) Target achieved R&D manipulation is clustered in the first-trail of high-tech identification, and it’s more significant on the firms which are outside the high-tech development zone or have a higher sale. Tax avoided R&D manipulation is clustered in the review-trail of high-tech identification, and it’s more significant on the firms which are inside the high-tech development zone or have a lower sale. The intention of high-tech identification policy is to encourage high-tech industries, but this paper finds that high-tech identification policy has a stimulation distortion effect, inducing enterprises to manipulate R&D expenses. Policy maker should adjust high-tech identification policy from the perspectives of violation cost, audit process and R&D threshold, so as to explore more effective policy.

Key words: high-tech identification policy, R&D manipulation, technological innovation efficiency