Effects of Pandemics on Corporate Innovation: Evidence From the Chinese Firms

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of the pandemics-related uncertainty on corporate innovation in Chinese firms. For this purpose, the recent uncertainty measure of pandemics, the Pandemics Discussion Index (PDI), is used. The findings from the fixed-effects estimations show the negative impact of the PDI on corporate innovation. Government subsidies, operation profits, and total exports also positively affect corporate innovation. In addition, firms' management efficiency promotes corporate innovation. These results hold when the Blundell-Bond estimations are utilized to address potential endogeneity. Various robustness analyses, such as considering the lagged PDI and the lagged controls, are also conducted. Consequently, the main results remain robust. Thus, this paper provides novel and robust evidence on the negative impact of pandemics on Chinese firms' corporate innovation behavior.

Keywords: Blundell-Bond estimations; COVID-19 pandemic; Chinese firms; corporate innovation; pandemics discussion index; post-COVID-19 era.