Innovation and credit market deepening: Evidence from Russian region

Abstract

We investigate the impact of credit market deepening on innovation, considering the role of investment risk and investment potential in the context of Russian regions, analysing the panel time series data extracted from the Federal Statistics Department of the Russian Federation and using the method of moments quantile regression. Our baseline findings demonstrate that credit market development spurs innovation in the sample regions in all quantiles (q10–q90), and the credit market has a positive impact on innovation, regardless of whether investment risk is lower or higher. In addition, we reveal a U-shaped relationship between innovation and regional economic growth in Russian regions. We also observe reductions in imports and exports and a boosting effect of increased employment on innovation. We propose several potential policy measures and practical conclusions based on our findings.