金融科技与企业债务违约风险——影响效果、机制识别与异质性特征

Fintech and Corporate Debt Default Risk—Influence Effects, Mechanism Identification and Heterogeneity Characteristics

金融科技的发展突破了许多传统金融服务在支持实体经济过程中的束缚,对抑制实体企业债务违约、防范化解重大金融风险以及经济高质量发展都会产生重大影响。基于2011—2020年沪深A股上市公司数据,具体研究金融科技发展对企业债务违约风险的影响机理。实证结果表明,金融科技发展对企业债务违约风险存在显著抑制作用,且这一结论在经过一系列稳健性检验后依旧成立。机制分析表明,金融科技的发展能够提升金融的资源配置效率、改善市场信息效率、提升公司治理能力。具体而言,金融科技能够有效缓解企业融资约束,提高股价信息含量,降低委托代理成本,抑制企业的债务违约风险。异质性检验发现,在民营企业、中小企业、内部治理环境差和成熟投资者参与度高的企业中,金融科技对企业债务违约风险的抑制作用更为明显。

This study is based on the fact of the transformation of China’s economy to high-quality development, the tightening of the financing environment, the downward pressure on the economy, and the fact that the debt default risks of the corporate sector have gradually been exposed, which were covered by the high-speed economic growth stage in the past. Such a situation is usually believed to be closely related to the bottleneck problems encountered by traditional financial support for the real economy. Traditional finance has the problem of inefficiency in guiding the allocation of resources, which restricts its potential to curb the risk of corporate debt default. There exist problems like soft budget constraints and collateral requirements limit the distribution of financial resources, the inefficiency of financial market information reduces the efficiency of management decision-making, and it is difficult to reduce the agency cost for the limited external supervision. The bottleneck problems encountered in the development of traditional finance need to conform to the development trend of the times, break the inherent limitations, and seek innovative solutions. In 2019, China officially elevated the development of fintech to a national strategy and clarified the vital position of fintech in the “14th Five-Year Plan” financial reform plan. Whether Fintech can break through the bottleneck encountered in traditional finance through the drive of emerging technologies, thereby reducing the risk of corporate debt default, is a real problem worth studying. We have empirically investigated the effects of fintech on corporate debt default risk, as well as the intermediary role played by financing constraints, capital market information efficiency, and corporate governance. Besides, we have explored the impact of fintech on corporate debt default risk under different resource endowment conditions, internal governance environments, and corporate heterogeneity of mature investor participation. We find that fintech significantly reduces the corporate debt default risk, and these findings remain valid even after a series of robustness tests. Further research shows that fintech can improve the efficiency of financial resource allocation, market information efficiency, and corporate governance capabilities. Specifically, fintech can alleviate corporate financing constraints, improve the content of stock price information, reduce the cost of entrusting agents. Heterogeneity characteristics show that in enterprises with private -owned property, or small and medium size, poor internal governance environment, or high participation of mature investors, the inhibitory effect of fintech on the risk of corporate debt default is more prominent. Our results, taking fintech as the starting point, aiming at studying the impact of fintech development on corporate debt default risk, expand the framework of the influencing factors of corporate default risk from the perspective of technological progress. It also provides strong micro-evidence for the vital role of fintech in helping the development of the real economy. Secondly, based on the verification of the relationship between “fintech-enterprise debt default risk”, this paper focuses on whether fintech can break the limitations of traditional financial development (low efficiency of financial resource allocation, low efficiency of financial market information and limited supervision of financial subjects), and identifies and tests the differentiation mechanism paths such as improving financing constraints, improving the information efficiency of the capital market, and enhancing the level of corporate governance, aiming to clarify the specific mechanism by which fintech affects corporate debt default risk. Finally, this paper examines the targeted role of fintech on the risk of corporate debt default under the circumstances of different resource endowment conditions, internal governance environment, and mature investor participation of enterprises, which is conducive to forming a differentiated policy orientation.