Do tax incentives for innovation attract high-technology investment from emerging markets? Evidence from China's outward foreign direct investment

We examine whether the innovation box regime (IBR), a tax incentive with lower tax rates on intellectual property (IP)-related income, attracts high-technology investment from emerging markets. Using the staggered difference-in-differences (DID) method, we find that China's high-technology investment in IBR countries, relative to non-IBR countries, increases significantly after the implementation of IBR. This finding is robust to a battery of sensitivity tests. The mechanism analysis suggests that the attraction of the IBR for high-technology investment is realised through the encouragement of innovation, and this finding is also verified in the heterogeneity analysis. We also find that the IBR has a positive effect on high-technology investment only if the tax incentives apply to pre-existing IP before the regime implementation, and the ease with which enterprises can directly use the latest technologies in the host country does not have an impact on the effectiveness of the IBR. Moreover, the effect of IBR on M&A is larger than that on greenfield investment. Our study contributes to the literature and policy assessment on IBR.