网络基础设施建设对企业融资约束的影响研究——基于“宽带中国”的准自然实验

Can Network Infrastructure Construction Alleviate Corporate Financing Constraints?——A Quasi-natural Experiment Based on Broadband China

网络基础设施建设有助于促进企业缓解融资约束,这对优化企业要素配置效率和推动经济高质量发展具有重要现实意义。论文基于信息不对称视角,以“宽带中国”试点为自然实验,运用2009—2020年中国上市公司数据,运用多期双重差分法实证检验了网络基础设施建设对企业融资约束水平的影响并验证了其内在机理。研究发现:网络基础设施建设有助于缓解企业的融资约束水平。异质性分析表明该政策显著缓解了大规模企业的融资约束问题,而对中小规模企业的影响不显著;该政策显著缓解了国有企业的融资约束问题,对非国有企业的影响不显著;该政策可以显著缓解成熟期企业融资约束,但对成长期、衰退期企业影响有限。机制检验表明“宽带中国”试点政策主要通过媒体关注效应(外部机制)和信息披露效应(内部机制)缓解企业融资约束水平,两种均显著降低了融资双方之间的信息鸿沟进而缓解企业融资困境。论文的结论不仅拓宽了“新基建”研究的视角,还为网络基础设施建设对微观企业行为的影响提供了可靠经验证据和政策启示。

The construction of network infrastructure helps enterprises to alleviate financing constraints,which is of great practical significance to optimize the efficiency of enterprise factor allocation and promote high-quality economic development.From the perspective of information asymmetry,this paper empirically examines the impact of network infrastructure construction on the financing constraints of enterprises and verifies its underlying mechanism using a multi-period double difference method with the "Broadband China" pilot as a natural experiment through the data of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2020.The study finds that network infrastructure development helps to alleviate the level of financing constraints of firms.Heterogeneity analysis shows that the policy can significantly alleviate the financing constraints of large-scale enterprises,state-owned enterprises,and mature enterprises,but has no significant impact on small and medium-sized enterprises,non-state-owned enterprises and developing and declining enterprises.The mechanism test shows that the “Broadband China” pilot policy alleviates the financing constraints of enterprises mainly through the media attention effect(external mechanism) and the information disclosure effect(internal mechanism),both of which improve the information asymmetry situation through the initiative of the outside world to understand the internal information of enterprises and the initiative of enterprises to provide information to the outside world,respectively,and significantly reduce the information gap between the financing parties.The information gap between the two sides of the financing gap is significantly reduced,thus alleviating the financing constraints of enterprises.The findings of this paper not only broaden the perspective of the "new infrastructure" research,but also provide reliable empirical evidence and policy implications for the impact of network infrastructure construction on micro-firm behaviour.