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Crowding in or crowding out? How local government debt influences corporate innovation for China

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  • Junbing Xu
  • Yuanyuan Li
  • Dawei Feng
  • Zhouyi Wu
  • Yang He

Abstract

The pressure upon local governments to redeem their debt could affect government fiscal ability. It could consequently affect their fiscal policies on corporations, which might distort corporate innovation. Based on the data of Chinese Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies and the local government implicit short-term debt financed by local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) in 31 provinces, this paper shows that local government debt (LGD) negatively affects corporate R&D investment in China, thereby suggesting a strong crowding-out effect. The crowding-out effect is more pronounced when the firm is a non-state-owned enterprise (NSOE), the firm’s size is small, the firm’s age is young, or the firm is in the lower market competition. This paper provide evidence by interacting the terms that local government actions, such as consumption of fiscal resources, strengthening tax collection efforts, or consumption of credit resources, might partially account for the crowding-out effect. This study illustrates the innovation costs of local government debt.

Suggested Citation

  • Junbing Xu & Yuanyuan Li & Dawei Feng & Zhouyi Wu & Yang He, 2021. "Crowding in or crowding out? How local government debt influences corporate innovation for China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-20, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0259452
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259452
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    6. Yu, Siming & Kang, Wan & Wenjun, Liu & Wang, Deli & Zheng, Jieying & Dong, Boyan, 2024. "The crowding out effect of local government debt expansion: Insights from commercial credit financing," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 858-872.
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