Publications
Publications
- August 2023
- Management Science
Anti-Corruption, Government Subsidies, and Innovation: Evidence from China
By: Lily Fang, Josh Lerner, Chaopeng Wu and Qi Zhang
Abstract
We leverage an exogenous shock—the crackdown on corrupt Chinese officials beginning in 2012—and examine how the allocation of research subsidies and innovative outcomes were affected. We argue that the staggered removal of provincial heads on corruption charges during China’s anticorruption campaign and the unanticipated departures of local government officials responsible for innovation programs led to plausibly exogenous reductions in corruption. After both events, the allocation of subsidies became more sensitive to firm merit than to corruption and subsidies became more strongly associated with future innovation. Anticorruption efforts and officials’ career incentives improved the efficacy of subsidy programs.
Keywords
Government Subsidies; Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Crime and Corruption; Government and Politics; China
Citation
Fang, Lily, Josh Lerner, Chaopeng Wu, and Qi Zhang. "Anti-Corruption, Government Subsidies, and Innovation: Evidence from China." Management Science 69, no. 8 (August 2023): 4363–4388.