产业政策、融资约束与出口产品质量

Industrial Policy, Financial Constraints and Export Product Quality

摘要: 出口产品质量是国家外贸出口竞争力的重要体现，如何为出口企业的研发创新提供融资支持已成为中央和地方政府长期思考的政策方向。本文研究开发区产业政策对当地企业出口产品质量提升的外溢效应和实现机制。借助我国国家级开发区的试点城市与工业企业的匹配数据，研究表明开发区政策有利于促进当地企业出口产品质量的提升，当地企业融资约束得到缓解是该因果关系重要的实现机制。进一步地，开发区政策不能正向调节融资约束对企业出口产品质量提升的抑制程度，即便是获益于开发区政策溢出效应的企业其出口产品质量的提升依旧非常依赖于充足的资金支持，但开发区政策通过缓解企业融资约束从而促进出口产品质量提升的中介效应存在且显著。本文的研究结论为缓解企业融资约束促进产品质量提升提供了一个产业政策层面的解释和政策启示。

Abstract: The quality of export products is an important manifestation of a country’s export competitiveness. How to provide financing support for R&D and innovation of export firms has become a long-term policy direction of central and local governments in China. This paper studies the spillover effect and financial mechanism of the industrial policy of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on the export quality of local firms. Based on the matching data between the pilot cities of China’s national SEZ and industrial firms, it is shown that the SEZ policy is conducive to promoting the quality of local firms’ export products, and the relaxation of financial constraints is an important channel of this causality. Specifically, the SEZ policy cannot positively alleviate the suppression of financial constraints on the improvement of firms’ export product quality. Even for firms benefiting from the spillover effect of SEZ policy, the improvement in their export product quality still heavily relies on sufficient financial support. However, the mediating effect of SEZ policy in promoting the improvement of export product quality by alleviating corporate financial constraints exists and is significant. The conclusion provides an explanation and inspiration in terms of industrial policy for mitigating the firms’ financial constraints and promoting export product quality.