大量研究发现，宏观杠杆率对国家经济的增长具有极为重要的影响。考虑到企业创新是一国经济增长的源泉，对企业杠杆率与创新能力的关系展开研究，不仅有助于更好地理解企业创新的影响因素，还能加深对微观企业杠杆率与宏观经济增长之间关系的认识。因此，结合我国结构性去杠杆及实施创新驱动发展战略的现实背景，本项目系统地检验了企业显性财务杠杆、隐性财务杠杆及经营杠杆对创新能力的影响；同时，完善了企业杠杆率影响创新能力的理论分析框架，并为二者关系的作用机理提供了经验证据；此外，从精简法人单位及优化债务结构等角度探讨了企业应当如何有效控制杠杆率并提升创新能力。本项目的研究将丰富企业创新影响因素，企业杠杆率成因及经济后果的相关文献；对于落实结构性去杠杆的政策，提升企业创新能力，实现创新驱动发展战略，也具有重要的启示意义。

Prior literature has proved that macro leverage ratio is one of key determinants of economic growth. Given that corporate innovation is also a crucial driver of economic growth, understanding the role of the corporate leverage ratio in influencing firm innovation is an important research question. Because it will not only help us learn what drives innovation, but also shed light on how micro-level corporate leverage affects the development of economic. Therefore, in the context of China’s implementation of structural deleveraging and innovation-driven development strategy, we study the impact of corporate leverage (explicit financial leverage, implicit financial leverage and operating leverage) on the corporate innovation. Meanwhile, we try to improve the theoretical framework and provide the empirical evidence for the mechanism through which corporate leverage affects innovation ability. We further explore how the corporate can effectively control its leverage, and improve innovation ability. Our study contributes to the literature on determinants of corporate innovation, determinants of corporate leverage, and economic consequences of corporate leverage. It will also help us to implement the policy of structural deleveraging, improve the corporate innovation ability, and then achieve the goal of strategy of innovation-driven development.