International political and economic patterns have been changing rapidly around the world over the past few years due to the coronavirus pandemic. China is steadily developing the use of foreign capital, but it is still under great pressure. China is ...
International political and economic patterns have been changing rapidly around the world over the past few years due to the coronavirus pandemic. China is steadily developing the use of foreign capital, but it is still under great pressure. China is rushing to implement a negative list of foreign investment entry (restricted list) and the Foreign Investment Act. On December 27, 2021 and October 28, 2022, the latest version of the Foreign Investment Entry Negative List (Limited List) and the Foreign Investment Encouragement Industry List were published to further ease restrictions on the foreign investment sector and realize zero foreign investment entry as soon as possible. At the same time, foreign direct investment (FDI) also brings about technology spillovers. The spillover effect of technology, also known as technological externalities, has always been a subject of attention. It enables companies to generate significant returns with less input or even without investing.
Innovation is an important engine for promoting economic growth and is very important for national development. Currently, China's economic development has shifted from fast growth to high-quality development, and the "14th Five-Year Plan" should maintain its core position in modernization construction in China, complete a technological innovation market-oriented mechanism. The research on the effects of China's FDI policies and technology spillover on enterprise innovation serves two purposes. Firstly, it is useful for assessing the effectiveness of China's policies in attracting foreign investment, providing references and recommendations for future adjustments to foreign investment policies. Secondly, it helps enterprises to gain a better understanding of the technology spillover effects and the relationship between technology spillovers and technological innovation outcomes. This is conducive to implementing the "14th Five-Year Plan" and promoting the improvement of innovation outcomes, thus achieving high-quality growth in the Chinese economy.
This study mainly uses the data of A-share listed companies from 2002-2019 and divides the data into two phases, 2002-2011 and 2012-2019, with the adjustment of the "Foreign Investment Industrial Guidance Catalog" in 2007 and 2015 as policy shocks, respectively, and uses the double difference method (DID) to investigate the impact of FDI policy effects on firm innovation. It also examines the effects of technology spillovers on firm innovation by analyzing inter-firm technological spillovers using firm invention patent data. The empirical results indicate significant positive effects of FDI policy and technology spillovers on overall firm innovation outcomes. The study further reveals heterogeneity in the effects of FDI policy on firm innovation outcomes across geographical regions and firm ownership dimensions. The effects of FDI policy on technological innovation outcomes are more pronounced for firms in the eastern regions, while no significant effects are observed for firms in the western regions. Additionally, FDI policy has a significantly positive impact on the technological innovation outcomes of state-owned enterprises, but shows non-significant inhibitory effects on non-state-owned enterprises. Based on these conclusions, this study puts forward relevant policy suggestions.