金融科技的现金股利效应——基于中国A股上市公司的实证研究

The Cash Dividend Effect of FinTech

金融科技借助各种信息技术与金融业务进行深度融合,降低了金融市场的摩擦,为企业稳定现金流提供了保障。本文使用2014-2019年沪深A股非金融行业上市公司财务数据,探究金融科技是如何利用信息技术影响上市企业现金股利政策及其传导机制,使投资者获得合理的投资回报。研究发现金融科技的发展能够增强企业发放现金股利的意愿和提高现金股利支付水平。该效应在民营企业、基金持股比例较高、经济不发达的西部地区、第一大股东持股比例较低的企业中更为显著。使用工具变量控制内生性问题后,以上结论依然稳健。进一步地,实证表明金融科技通过提高其覆盖广度和使用深度来促进企业发放现金股利。机制分析验证金融科技可以通过“缓解融资约束”和“提高公司治理水平”来影响企业现金股利支付。在金融供给侧改革背景下,我国应持续推进金融科技的创新,发挥其空间聚集效应和技术知识溢出效应,以创新驱动实体经济的高质量发展。

FinTech,with the help of various information technologies which deeply integrate with financial business,reduces the friction in financial markets and provides a guarantee for stable cash flow of enterprises.The development of FinTech can not only reduce the marginal cost of bank operations and reduce their lending risks,but also provide customers with convenient and efficient financial services,giving full play to the positive role of digital inclusive finance.Base on this,this paper uses financial data of non-financial industry listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2014-2019 to explore how FinTech uses information technology to influence companies'cash dividend policies and their transmission mechanisms.Innovatively,we use the number of non-financial institution payment service enterprises in each province as a proxy variable for FinTech,and this indicator can portray the overall development of FinTech in the region where the enterprises are located more directly and objectively.The results shows that the development of FinTech can enhance the willingness of enterprises to pay cash dividends and increase the level of cash dividend payments.and the effect is more pronounced in private firms and firms with a higher percentage of fund ownership.The above findings remain robust after controlling for endogeneity issues using instrumental variables.Further,the empirical evidence suggests that the development of FinTech promote cash dividends by increasing their breadth of coverage and depth of usage.The mechanism analysis verifies that FinTech can influence corporate cash dividend payments by "alleviating financing constraints"and "improving corporate governance".In conclusion,in the context of financial supply-side reform,China should continue to promote the innovation of FinTech by the spatial aggregation effect and technological knowledge spillover effect,and drive the high-quality development of the real economy with innovation.Besides,we need to continue to expand the breadth of coverage as well as the depth of use of financial services,develop innovative financial products and services,and improve the application of financial technology in various financial scenarios to make up for the lack of functions of traditional finance in economically underdeveloped areas and credit resources for small and micro enterprises.