The effects of Tech‐Fin on corporate innovation: Evidence from China

Abstract This paper uses the multi‐period difference‐in‐differences (DID) method to empirically test the effects of Tech‐Fin on the innovation output of companies based on a quasi‐natural experiment to examine China's Tech‐Fin pilot city reform. We find that Tech‐Fin significantly increased the innovation output of high‐tech companies in the pilot cities and in cities with weak intellectual property protection. In addition, Tech‐Fin had no significant effects on the innovation output of pseudo‐high‐tech companies and technology‐intensive high‐tech companies. We further find that Tech‐Fin motivated high‐tech companies to increase their innovation output through innovation correction and risk‐smoothing effects.