High-Tech Enterprise Certification, Fiscal and Tax Incentives, and Corporate Debt Financing

【Authors】

ZHANG Ming, LU Xianfeng, WANG Zhe & CHEN Yinmo

【WorkUnit】

ZHANG Ming (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 100732)；LU Xianfeng (Bank of China, 100818)；WANG Zhe (Minzu University of China, 100081)；CHEN Yinmo (Beijing Language and Culture University, 100083)

【Abstract】

How to effectively utilize fiscal-financial synergy to support technological innovation is a critical issue for fostering new quality productive forces. Innovative enterprises often face a financing dilemma characterized by insufficient scale, high costs, and mismatched maturity structures due to severe information asymmetry and agency problems. While fiscal funds can absorb high innovation risks, they are limited by fiscal sustainability. In contrast, financial markets possess massive capital but exhibit lower risk appetites. Therefore, government-led certification programs, acting as a crucial policy anchor, can bridge this gap by leveraging fiscal credibility to mobilize large-scale financial resources.
Using data from China’s A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2024, this paper investigates the impact of the High-Tech Enterprise (HTE) certification on corporate debt financing from a fiscal-financial synergy perspective. Theoretically, HTE certification reduces information asymmetry through mandatory disclosure requirements, mitigates agency problems via triennial rolling reviews, and sends a positive certification signal to financial institutions. Accompanying fiscal incentives further amplify these effects, outweighing the potential negative impact of reduced corporate tax shields.
Empirically, we employ a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model. The baseline results demonstrate that obtaining HTE certification significantly improves corporate debt financing by expanding its scale, reducing financing costs, and lengthening its maturity. These findings remain highly robust after rigorous checks, including pre-trend tests, the application of heterogeneous robust estimators (CSDID and DID2S), and PSM-DID methods.
To unpack the mechanism of fiscal-financial synergy, we use text-matching to distinguish between three heterogeneous fiscal tools. We find that tax incentives comprehensively improve debt financing across all three dimensions (scale, cost, and maturity). Unpaid subsidies primarily expand debt scale and extend maturity by transmitting positive signals, whereas fiscal interest subventions directly lower actual interest burdens, focusing on expanding scale and reducing costs. Furthermore, heterogeneity analyses indicate that the policy’s positive effect is amplified in regions with higher financial efficiency and greater banking competition. Conversely, elevated local fiscal pressure and aggressive local debt expansion crowd out credit resources and significantly diminish policy effectiveness. Finally, the improved debt financing induced by HTE certification effectively translates into higher innovation output.
The incremental contribution of this paper lies in shifting the paradigm from evaluating isolated policies to examining the micro-mechanisms of fiscal-financial synergy, while granularly comparing different fiscal tools. Policymakers should strengthen inter-departmental coordination among fiscal, technological, and financial authorities, utilize heterogeneous fiscal tools with greater precision, and manage local debt risks to optimize the financial environment. Future research could extend this framework to investigate how HTE certification and fiscal-financial synergy influence equity-based financing, such as equity refinancing and convertible bonds.

JEL: G32, H25, O38

【KeyWords】

High-Tech Enterprise Certification, Fiscal-Financial Synergy, Fiscal and Tax Incentives, Corporate Debt Financing