数字政府建设能降低企业非生产性支出吗?——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

Can Digital Government Construction Reduce Enterprises'Non-productive Expenditure?Empirical Evidence from China's Listed Companies

在建设全国统一大市场的进程中,有效降低企业非生产性支出是提高市场运行效率的关键环节。文章基于2016—2019年中国A股上市公司数据,使用大数据发展“政用指数”刻画各地区数字政府建设水平,评估了数字政府建设对企业非生产性支出的影响及其机制。研究发现,数字政府建设显著降低了企业非生产性支出。上述结论在一系列稳健性检验之后依然成立。异质性效应分析表明,数字政府建设抑制企业非生产性活动的效应对非国有企业、政府管制行业、数字化转型程度较高的企业以及信息基础设施水平较高的地区更强。机制检验结果表明,数字政府建设降低企业非生产性支出的效应随着政务服务效能的提升而减弱,且数字政府建设会显著改善企业面临的税收环境。这意味着提升政务服务效能是数字政府建设降低企业非生产性支出的重要机制。文章证实了数字政府建设对于抑制企业非生产性活动的积极意义,在一定程度上可为激发市场主体活力、夯实经济发展效率的变革提供政策借鉴。

Continuously reducing market transaction costs is one of the main objectives of building a unified national market.From the market microstructure perspective,non-productive expenditure(NPE)is a typical and universal transaction cost.In the continuous improvement of the socialist market economy,local governments have become an essential force in allocating key factor resources and shaping the regional business environment.Since government service efficiency needs to be improved and the mechanism of policy implementation and adjustment could be better,the interaction between enterprises and local governments may be accompanied by a series of NPE.With the development of digital technologies,digital government construction(DGC)is becoming a new engine for transforming government functions and promoting the modernization of the national governance system and capacity.However,empirical studies have not systematically investigated the impact and mechanism of DGC on enterprises'NPE.Based on China's A-share listed companies from 2016 to 2019,this paper uses the"government affairs index"of big data development to describe the level of DGC in each region and empirically evaluates the impact and mechanism of DGC on enterprises'NPE.The results show that DGC significantly reduces enterprises'NPE.In addition,the inhibition effect of DGC on enterprises'NPE is more substantial for non-stateowned enterprises,government-regulated industries,enterprises with a higher degree of digital transformation,and regions with a higher level of information infrastructure.Mechanism testing shows that the reduction effect of DGC on enterprises'NPE weakens with the improvement of government service efficiency,and DGC significantly improves the tax environment faced by enterprises.The findings indicate that improving government service efficiency is an essential mechanism that DGC reduces enterprises'NPE.The contributions of this paper are as follows:First,it enriches the empirical literature on the determinants of enterprises'NPE,providing new evidence for evaluating the microeconomic effect of government digital transformation.Second,it clarifies and tests the internal mechanisms of DGC affecting non-productive activities of enterprises,providing a new perspective for examining the economic consequences of government-enterprise interactions in the context of economic transformation.Third,it provides policy reference for stimulating the vitality of market players and improving the efficiency of market operation.The study shows that DGC is not only an inherent requirement for innovating the concept of government governance,but also an essential basis for consolidating the micro foundation of economic development efficiency reform.