IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v83y2025ics1544612325009833.html

Cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, tax expenditures, and firm innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Jiang, Yun
  • Zhang, Yanru

Abstract

Based on data from listed companies between 2012 and 2023, this study systematically evaluates the policy effects of Comprehensive Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zones (CCBEPZs) on enterprise innovation using a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model. The findings reveal that the establishment of these zones significantly increases the number of enterprise patent applications. However, tax incentives exhibit a "substitution effect" on corporate innovation: government subsidies crowd out firms' independent R&D investments, fostering policy dependence. This counterintuitive finding suggests that merely increasing tax incentives may not sustainably enhance firms' innovation momentum. Mediation effect analysis further indicates that CCBEPZs indirectly unlock innovation resources by reducing transaction costs for enterprises.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiang, Yun & Zhang, Yanru, 2025. "Cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, tax expenditures, and firm innovation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:83:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325009833
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.107725
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325009833
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.107725?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ma, Mengjuan & Yu, Ziling & Ma, Lili & Guo, Wenyuan, 2025. "Institutional openness and city cross-border e-commerce: Evidence from China's pilot free trade zones," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 558-570.
    2. Zhou, Kuo & Wang, Qiaochu & Tao, Yunqing & Li, Xiaofan, 2024. "Information infrastructure construction and firm export performance in China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PA).
    3. Wang, Jianlong & Wu, Haitao & Liu, Yong & Wang, Weilong, 2024. "Health welfare in the digital era: Exploring the impact of digital trade on residents' health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. Xue, Fei, 2024. "Driving economic transition: The impact of cross-border e-commerce policy on the upgrading of service industry structure," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 941-956.
    5. Liang, Yufan & He, Xiaolong, 2024. "Does the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot area policy help to improve the level of urban technological innovation?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 1258-1271.
    6. Zhang, Peng, 2025. "Cross-border e-commerce, foreign shareholding, and supply chain resilience," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Han, Guanzhe & Li, Fenglei, 2025. "Digital economy of trading partner countries, outward investment, and cross-border E-commerce exports," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    2. Liu, Jianmei & Guo, Xiang & Fu, Rong, 2025. "Supply chain shared audit, financing costs, and enterprises innovation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    3. Gao, Yue & Zhu, Yun, 2025. "Government debt settlement and corporate supply chain resilience–an empirical study based on china's special supervision campaign," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PG).
    4. Zhang, Yuan & Li, Huanjie, 2025. "Cross-border E-commerce and energy efficiency: Evidence from China's cross-border E-commerce pilot zones," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    5. Zheng, Mengze & Wang, Rui & Ye, Jing & Li, Te, 2025. "How does supply chain finance enhance firms' supply chain resilience?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    6. Zhang, Yuxi & Cheung, Adrian (Wai Kong) & Qu, Xiaodong, 2024. "Can digital financial inclusion promote the coupling coordination between pollution reduction and low-carbon development? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 1113-1130.
    7. Du, Weijian & Cheng, Cheng & Li, Mengjie, 2025. "Can listed company digitization reduce the risk of export failure? Evidence from multisource heterogeneous data in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    8. Wang, Tianchen & Wu, Xuesong & Mi, Qun, 2025. "Institutional openness and the labor income share of enterprises - A decade and a half of empirical evidence from China's free trade zones," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Wang, Ziqi & Peng, Dan & Kong, Qunxi & Tan, Feifei, 2025. "Digital infrastructure and economic growth: Evidence from corporate investment efficiency," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    10. Chen, Heping & Wang, Yan, 2025. "Cross-border e-commerce, financial development, and trade in services," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PF).
    11. Fang, Wenying & Xu, Qian, 2025. "Does cross-border e-commerce pilot zone policy reduce financing costs for SMEs?: Evidence from a multi-period DID approach in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PE).
    12. Lizhan Lv & Feng Dai, 2025. "How Agricultural Innovation Talents Influence County-Level Industrial Structure Upgrading: A Knowledge-Empowerment Perspective," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-39, July.
    13. Wang, Xiaowen & Zhang, Hui & Shi, Meng, 2025. "The mediating role of supply chain digitization in the relationship between cross-border e-commerce development and regional economic growth," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    14. Chenggang Wang & Fan Meng & Tiansen Liu, 2025. "The impact of digital trade development on China’s export of technology-intensive products: Evidence from importing countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(4), pages 1-35, April.
    15. Wang, Qixuan & Ren, Jie & Su, Hangying & Chen, Zirui & Diao, Mi, 2026. "Unraveling the impacts of free trade zones on urban innovation intensity: Evidence from China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    16. Liu, Yujun & Zhang, Miao & Fan, Beiting & Fu, Shengran & Liu, Yiteng, 2025. "The green side of digital trade: Evaluating the impact of National E-commerce Demonstration Cities policy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    17. Zeng Yu & Sofian Rosbi & Mohammad Harith Amlus, 2025. "Systematic Literature Review on Green Purchasing Behavior in E-commerce: A TCCM Framework-Based Analysis," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(7), pages 3441-3449, July.
    18. Li, Meng & Wang, Zhengqi & Shu, Linhan & Gao, Haoyu, 2025. "Broadband infrastructure and enterprise digital transformation: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(PB).
    19. Huang, Meiying & Cheng, Pengfei & Yuan, Yimeng, 2025. "Empowering corporate growth: How digital government enhances investment stability," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 146-161.
    20. Sun, Hongjie & Cao, Qingqing & Gu, Tiantian, 2024. "Can agricultural export trade openness improve residents' health in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 1608-1620.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:finlet:v:83:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325009833. 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.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.