Manufacturing innovation is of strategic importance to China in its effort to reshape future technology. This study explores the impact of government subsidies on the research and development (R&D) intensity of China's new energy vehicle (NEV) enterprises. The dynamic relationship between government subsidies and R&D intensity is tested with a panel regression model and a threshold regression model. We find that government subsidies have a significantly positive impact on R&D intensity when considering the sample group as a whole, but market profit does not contribute to R&D intensity. As for the sub-sample, government subsidies have a significantly positive impact on R&D intensity in assembly enterprises but are insignificant in supporting enterprises. Two threshold values are also identified with the logarithm of government subsidy. We find that government subsidies have a significant crowding in effect on the R&D intensity of NEV enterprises. With the increasing of government subsidy, the crowding in effect weakens gradually. The policy implication is that the structure of government subsidies should be optimized. More demand-oriented policy instruments should be adopted to cultivate the market. The government subsidies should be reduced gradually until full withdrawal.

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Purchase subsidy has been adopted to accelerate the diffusion of New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) in China. With a Multi-stage Difference-in-Differences (DID) method, this research investigates the impact of purchase subsidy on Research and Development (R&D) efforts of NEV enterprises. The results indicate that purchase subsidy for NEVs has a positive and significant impact on R&D efforts of NEV enterprises. The impact increases when the purchase subsidy rate decreases. When considering the influences of government procurement and exemption on purchase tax, the positive impact of purchase subsidy still remains significant. The policy implications are that the purchase subsidy rate should be reduced, and stricter technological requirements should be set to couple with the purchase subsidy.

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Government subsidies (GSs) have triggered a remarkable increase in the production capacity of photovoltaic (PV) electricity in China. However, the lack of core technologies has limited PV enterprises’ competitiveness in the global market. This research investigates the impacts of R&D subsidies and non-R&D subsidies on the innovation in PV enterprises. With samples of Chinese listed PV enterprises from 2010 to 2019, this study finds R&D subsidies exert a notable positive impact on the innovation in PV enterprises. In small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and enterprises without state-owned shares, both R&D subsidies and non-R&D subsidies have positive impacts on the innovation. Considering the policy orientation, R&D subsidies granted under demand-orientation policies promote the innovation in PV enterprises. The government should increase the amount of R&D subsidies, optimize the R&D subsidies’ evaluation mechanism, and reasonably grant R&D subsidies from the demand side.

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Entering the promotion catalogue is the basis for China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) enterprises to obtain promotion subsidies. Using a multistage difference-in-differences (DID) model with a sample of listed NEV enterprises in China from 2008 to 2017, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of entering the promotion catalogue on the innovation of NEV enterprises. The results indicate that entering the promotion catalogue can significantly promote innovation of NEV enterprises from the perspective of radical innovation, incremental innovation, and external technology introduction of NEV enterprises. In the mediation mechanism examination, this study finds that entering the promotion catalogue promotes innovation in NEV enterprises by increasing corporate profits and easing financing constraints. Based on the conclusions above, this paper recommends to strengthen core technology breakthrough of NEVs, cultivate market demand of NEVs industry, and improve subsidy supervision system of NEVs.