数智赋能、法治化营商环境建设与商业信用融资——来自“智慧法院”视角的经验证据

Data-Intelligence Empowerment,Law-Based Business Environment and Trade Credit Financing:Evidence from"Smart Courts"

智慧法院是新时代我国司法改革与数字技术深度融合进而优化法治化营商环境的关键举措。本文以2018~2020年A股上市企业为研究样本,利用最高人民法院发布的智慧法院建设评价指数,证实智慧法院显著提高了地区内企业的商业信用融资水平;并且发现,智慧法院有助于提高司法便利性和改善司法效率是两条潜在的影响机制。进一步地,对于民营企业、信贷获取能力较弱或诉讼风险较大的企业,以及行业竞争激烈或位于经济欠发达城市的企业而言,智慧法院的积极作用更为明显。最后还发现,智慧法院削弱了新冠疫情对企业商业信用融资和盈利能力的负面冲击,提高了我国微观经济发展的韧性。本文首次将数智赋能法治化营商环境建设的创新实践纳入经济学的研究范畴,为我国“十四五”时期持续优化市场营商环境以及加速形成数字驱动的经济发展模式提供了有益的经验参考。

The launch of"Smart Courts"system is a crucial practice for the deep integration of judicial reform and digital intelligence to improve the law-based business environment in China.We use the A-share listed firms from 2018 to 2020 as the sample,and use the evaluation index of Smart Courts construction released by the Supreme People’s Court to prove that Smart Courts significantly improve the local firms’trade credit.The mechanism test reveals that Smart Courts increase the firms’access to trade credit by improving the local judicial accessibility and efficiency.Further research indicates that the positive impacts of Smart Courts on trade credit are more pronounced for private firms and the firms with less access to credit,higher litigation risk,in the highly competitive industries or underdeveloped areas.Last,we find that Smart Courts significantly weaken the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the firms’trade credit and performance,which strengthens the economic resilience in China.This paper is the first that has extended the research scope of economics to the innovative practice which empowers the law-based business environment improvement using digital intelligence,and also provides a useful practical reference for China to continuously improve the business environment and accelerate the formation of the economic development model driven by digital intelligence during the 14 th Five-Year Plan period.