Tax Incentives and Knowledge Heterogeneity: Short‑Term Stimulus or Long‑Term Stock?

Abstract

This paper unpacks the black box of knowledge accumulation by examining how tax incentives affect three distinct types of knowledge: high‑quality (highly cited) patents, AI patents, and green patents. We find that the long‑term accumulation effect is not uniform across knowledge types. High‑quality and AI patents respond significantly only in the short term (lag 1), with no long‑term accumulation; green patent quantity expansion generates bubbles without quality improvement. These findings suggest that durable knowledge accumulation is primarily driven by ordinary, low‑depreciation patents. From a knowledge management perspective, this implies that policies should distinguish between "short‑shelf‑life" and "long‑shelf‑life" knowledge, and avoid over‑incentivizing short‑lived innovation at the expense of durable knowledge infrastructure.