Can non-subsidised policies for new energy vehicles improve the quality of enterprise innovation? evidence from China

Through an investigation of listed new energy vehicle (NEV) enterprises in China from 2012 to 2021, we examined the impact of three NEV non-subsidised policies on enterprise innovation quality from both production and market ends, using the PVAR model. Our study yielded several key findings. First, non-subsidised policies have an overall positive effect, with the production-market-end policy represented by the dual-credit performing the best, followed by the single production-end policy (access catalog), and the market-end policy (government procurement) having the lowest impact. This difference is more pronounced in the two-stage sample (subsidy era, 2012-2016; post-subsidy era, 2017-2021). Second, the analysis of policy mechanisms shows that non-subsidised policies have an R&D investment effect and a product scale effect, but each emphasises specific policy-innovation paths. Third, the market competition pressure has a positive moderating effect on the impact of the dual-credit and access catalog policies, while the moderating effect on government procurement is not significant. Moreover, the external regional innovation atmosphere also has a heterogeneous impact on the incentive effect of non-subsidised policies. These results have important implications for adjusting NEV industry policy in the post-subsidy era and for the discussion of the relationship between non-subsidised policies and technological innovation.