IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v213y2023icp148-156.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Positive or negative? R&D subsidies and green technology innovation: Evidence from China's renewable energy industry

Author

Listed:
  • Lin, Boqiang
  • Xie, Yongjing

Abstract

Existing studies have separately discussed the significance of R&D subsidies (RDS) and green technology innovation (GTI) in the renewable energy (RE) industry. However, there is limited research exploring the relationship between them, underestimating the actual incentive effect of RDS on GTI in the RE industry. Using data from 160 listed RE companies in China from 2011 to 2020, this study aims to investigate the direct influence of RDS on GTI in the RE industry and uncover the underlying theoretical mechanisms. Our results reveal an inverted U-shaped association between RDS and GTI of RE companies, indicating an optimal value for the promotion effect of RDS on GTI. Furthermore, we find that RDS can indirectly influence the performance of GTI of RE companies by affecting the intensity of their R&D investments. The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the influence of RDS on GTI in the RE industry varies depending on factors, such as company lifecycles, ownerships, scales, and geographical characteristics. The empirical results of this study have significant implications for optimizing existing subsidy mechanisms to foster the development of GTI in China's RE industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin, Boqiang & Xie, Yongjing, 2023. "Positive or negative? R&D subsidies and green technology innovation: Evidence from China's renewable energy industry," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 148-156.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:213:y:2023:i:c:p:148-156
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2023.06.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148123007838
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2023.06.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Xiaozhen & Liu, Shan & Tao, Ziyang & Cao, Qun, 2022. "The impact of industrial policy and its combinations on the innovation quality of wind power enterprises: A study from the perspective of financing modes," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 945-956.
    2. Zheng, Mingbo & Feng, Gen-Fu & Jang, Chyi-Lu & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2021. "Terrorism and green innovation in renewable energy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    3. Ma, Rufei & Cai, Huan & Ji, Qiang & Zhai, Pengxiang, 2021. "The impact of feed-in tariff degression on R&D investment in renewable energy: The case of the solar PV industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    4. Jo Thori Lind & Halvor Mehlum, 2010. "With or Without U? The Appropriate Test for a U‐Shaped Relationship," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(1), pages 109-118, February.
    5. Wen, Huwei & Lee, Chien-Chiang & Zhou, Fengxiu, 2022. "How does fiscal policy uncertainty affect corporate innovation investment? Evidence from China's new energy industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    6. Liu, Da & Liu, Yumeng & Sun, Kun, 2021. "Policy impact of cancellation of wind and photovoltaic subsidy on power generation companies in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 134-147.
    7. Sung, Bongsuk, 2019. "Do government subsidies promote firm-level innovation? Evidence from the Korean renewable energy technology industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1333-1344.
    8. Lin, Boqiang & Xie, Yongjing, 2023. "Does digital transformation improve the operational efficiency of Chinese power enterprises?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    9. Amigues, Jean-Pierre & Kama, Alain Ayong Le & Moreaux, Michel, 2015. "Equilibrium transitions from non-renewable energy to renewable energy under capacity constraints," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 89-112.
    10. Miaomiao Li & Zhaoxing Hao & Meng Luan & Haibo Li & Guikun Cao, 2021. "The Impact of Innovation Investment Volatility on Technological Innovation of Enterprises in Different Life Cycles," Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Hindawi, vol. 2021, pages 1-12, December.
    11. Yu, Feifei & Guo, Yue & Le-Nguyen, Khuong & Barnes, Stuart J. & Zhang, Weiting, 2016. "The impact of government subsidies and enterprises’ R&D investment: A panel data study from renewable energy in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 106-113.
    12. Wu, Ting & Yang, Shuwang & Tan, Jingjing, 2020. "Impacts of government R&D subsidies on venture capital and renewable energy investment -- an empirical study in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    13. Yan, Zheming & Zou, Baoling & Du, Kerui & Li, Ke, 2020. "Do renewable energy technology innovations promote China's green productivity growth? Fresh evidence from partially linear functional-coefficient models," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    14. Tadahisa Koga, 2005. "R&D Subsidy and Self-Financed R&D: The Case of Japanese High-Technology Start-Ups," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 53-62, February.
    15. Zhijie Lin & Ying Zhang & Yong Tan, 2019. "An Empirical Study of Free Product Sampling and Rating Bias," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(1), pages 260-275, March.
    16. Xiang, Xiaojian & Liu, Chuanjiang & Yang, Mian, 2022. "Who is financing corporate green innovation?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 321-337.
    17. Chen, Jin & Heng, Cheng Suang & Tan, Bernard C.Y. & Lin, Zhijie, 2018. "The distinct signaling effects of R&D subsidy and non-R&D subsidy on IPO performance of IT entrepreneurial firms in China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 108-120.
    18. Xu, Bin & Lin, Boqiang, 2019. "Can expanding natural gas consumption reduce China's CO2 emissions?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 393-407.
    19. Yu, Shiwei & Lu, Tingwei & Hu, Xing & Liu, Lancui & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2021. "Determinants of overcapacity in China’s renewable energy industry: Evidence from wind, photovoltaic, and biomass energy enterprises," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    20. Chang, Kai & Zeng, Yonghong & Wang, Weihong & Wu, Xin, 2019. "The effects of credit policy and financial constraints on tangible and research & development investment: Firm-level evidence from China's renewable energy industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 438-447.
    21. Jiang, Zihao & Liu, Zhiying, 2022. "Policies and exploitative and exploratory innovations of the wind power industry in China: The role of technological path dependence," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    22. Fengyan Wang & Ziyuan Sun, 2022. "Does the Environmental Regulation Intensity and ESG Performance Have a Substitution Effect on the Impact of Enterprise Green Innovation: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-24, July.
    23. Liu, Jinyu & Wang, Zhengwei & Zhu, Wuxiang, 2021. "Does privatization reform alleviate ownership discrimination? Evidence from the Split-share structure reform in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    24. Yu, Feifei & Wang, Liting & Li, Xiaotong, 2020. "The effects of government subsidies on new energy vehicle enterprises: The moderating role of intelligent transformation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    25. Pengyu Chen & Yuanyuan Hao, 2022. "Digital transformation and corporate environmental performance: The moderating role of board characteristics," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1757-1767, September.
    26. Li, Xuehui & Lin, Boqiang, 2013. "Global convergence in per capita CO2 emissions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 357-363.
    27. Xu, Zhe & Meng, Lu & He, Dan & Shi, Xiaoliang & Chen, Ke, 2022. "Government Support's signaling effect on credit financing for new-energy enterprises," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    28. Jiarong Shi & Zihao Jiang & Biao Luo, 2022. "Economic policy, regulatory policy, or soft policy: Which category of policy can effectively improve the green innovation of Chinese wind power industry?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2284-2298, September.
    29. Yang, Qi-Cheng & Zheng, Mingbo & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2022. "Energy policy and green innovation: A quantile investigation into renewable energy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 1166-1175.
    30. Hamed Rezgallah & Nesrin Özataç & Salih Katircioğlu, 2019. "The impact of political instability on risk‐taking in the banking sector: International evidence using a dynamic panel data model (System‐GMM)," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(8), pages 891-906, December.
    31. Zhai, Huayun & Yang, Min & Chan, Kam C., 2022. "Does digital transformation enhance a firm's performance? Evidence from China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    32. Shao, Yanmin & Chen, Zhongfei, 2022. "Can government subsidies promote the green technology innovation transformation? Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 716-727.
    33. Albrizio, Silvia & Kozluk, Tomasz & Zipperer, Vera, 2017. "Environmental policies and productivity growth: Evidence across industries and firms," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 209-226.
    34. Song, Pengcheng & Zhang, Hai & Zhao, Qin, 2021. "Innovative Credit Guarantee Schemes with equity-for-guarantee swaps," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    35. Wu, Zhanchi & Fan, Xiangjun & Zhu, Bangzhu & Xia, Jiahui & Zhang, Lin & Wang, Ping, 2022. "Do government subsidies improve innovation investment for new energy firms: A quasi-natural experiment of China's listed companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    36. Cailou, Jiang & DeHai, Liu, 2022. "Does venture capital stimulate the innovation of China's new energy enterprises?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(PA).
    37. Zhang, Hongyan & Zhang, Lin, 2023. "Public support and energy innovation: Why do firms react differently?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    38. Liu, Dayong & Chen, Tong & Liu, Xiaoyang & Yu, Yongze, 2019. "Do more subsidies promote greater innovation? Evidence from the Chinese electronic manufacturing industry," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 441-452.
    39. Hu, Guoqiang & Wang, Xiaoqi & Wang, Yu, 2021. "Can the green credit policy stimulate green innovation in heavily polluting enterprises? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leonid Taraniuk & Renata Korsakiene & Karina Taraniuk, 2023. "Management of green investment of countries in terms of their technological development," Technology audit and production reserves, PC TECHNOLOGY CENTER, vol. 3(4(71)), pages 42-47, June.
    2. Lin, Boqiang & Xie, Yongjing, 2023. "The impact of government subsidies on capacity utilization in the Chinese renewable energy industry: Does technological innovation matter?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 352(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lin, Boqiang & Xie, Yongjing, 2023. "The impact of government subsidies on capacity utilization in the Chinese renewable energy industry: Does technological innovation matter?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 352(C).
    2. Bai, Rui & Lin, Boqiang & Liu, Xiying, 2021. "Government subsidies and firm-level renewable energy investment: New evidence from partially linear functional-coefficient models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    3. Zhang, Dan & Zheng, Mingbo & Feng, Gen-Fu & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2022. "Does an environmental policy bring to green innovation in renewable energy?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 1113-1124.
    4. Yan, Chen & Ji, Yaxing & Chen, Rui, 2023. "Research on the mechanism of selective industrial policies on enterprises' innovation performance ——Evidence from China's photovoltaic industry," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    5. Lee, Chi-Chuan & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2022. "How does green finance affect green total factor productivity? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    6. Wang, Kai-Hua & Su, Chi-Wei & Lobonţ, Oana-Ramona & Moldovan, Nicoleta-Claudia, 2020. "Chinese renewable energy industries’ boom and recession: Evidence from bubble detection procedure," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    7. Lin, Boqiang & Zhang, Aoxiang, 2023. "Government subsidies, market competition and the TFP of new energy enterprises," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    8. Qi, Xiaoyan & Guo, Yanshan & Guo, Pibin & Yao, Xilong & Liu, Xiuli, 2022. "Do subsidies and R&D investment boost energy transition performance? Evidence from Chinese renewable energy firms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    9. Lihua Hu & Yuanyuan Chen & Tao Fan, 2022. "The Influence of Government Subsidies on the Efficiency of Technological Innovation: A Panel Threshold Regression Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-21, December.
    10. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Hussain, Jafar & Chen, Yongxiu, 2022. "The optimal behavior of renewable energy resources and government's energy consumption subsidy design from the perspective of green technology implementation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 670-680.
    11. Kai Chang & Ning Lu & Ze Sheng Li & Yi Ran Wang, 2021. "The combined impacts of fiscal and credit policies on green firm's investment opportunity: Evidences from Chinese firm‐level analysis," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(7), pages 1822-1835, October.
    12. Zhang, Shengling & Wu, Zihao & He, Yinan & Hao, Yu, 2022. "How does the green credit policy affect the technological innovation of enterprises? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    13. Bongsuk Sung & Woo-Yong Song, 2021. "Are Political Factors More Relevant Than Economic Factors in Firm-Level Renewable Energy Technology Export? Evidence from Path Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-16, August.
    14. Qin, Shufeng & Xiong, Yongqing, 2022. "Innovation strategies of Chinese new energy vehicle enterprises under the influence of non-financial policies: Effects, mechanisms and implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    15. Zhang, Teng & Xu, Zhiwei, 2023. "The informational feedback effect of stock prices on corporate investments: A comparison of new energy firms and traditional energy firms in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    16. Mo Du & Ruirui Zhang & Shanglei Chai & Qiang Li & Ruixuan Sun & Wenjun Chu, 2022. "Can Green Finance Policies Stimulate Technological Innovation and Financial Performance? Evidence from Chinese Listed Green Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-28, July.
    17. Wang, Yadong & Wang, Delu & Shi, Xunpeng, 2023. "Sustainable development pathways of China's wind power industry under uncertainties: Perspective from economic benefits and technical potential," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    18. Wu, Ting & Yang, Shuwang & Tan, Jingjing, 2020. "Impacts of government R&D subsidies on venture capital and renewable energy investment -- an empirical study in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    19. Yang, Qi-Cheng & Zheng, Mingbo & Wang, Jun-Sheng & Wang, Yun-Peng, 2022. "The shocks of armed conflicts to renewable energy finance: Empirical evidence from cross-country data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    20. Feng, Gen-Fu & Niu, Peng & Wang, Jun-Zhuo & Liu, Jian, 2022. "Capital market liberalization and green innovation for sustainability: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 610-623.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:213:y:2023:i:c:p:148-156. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.