Corporate Innovation Incentive Policy During Business Cycles: Fiscal Subsidies or Tax Incentives?

This paper empirically tests the incentive effect of fiscal policy on corporate innovation from 2007 to 2019 in China. With data from A-share-listed companies in the China Stock Market & Accounting Research (CSMAR) and Wind databases and GDP data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC), the paper uses the Hodrick - Prescott (HP) filter method and a panel fixed effects model to empirically test the incentive effect of fiscal and tax policies on corporate innovation, compares the incentive differences between tax incentives and fiscal subsidies across different business cycles, and conducts heterogeneity analysis. The study finds that although fiscal subsidies and tax incentives promote enterprise innovation, the innovation incentive effect of fiscal subsidies is greater during an economic downturn than during an upturn. In contrast, tax incentives are stronger during an economic upturn than during a downturn. The results of this research may help to develop economic policies and to guide the precise implementation of tax and fee reductions.