公共投资与城市创业活力:城投债视角

Public Investment and Urban Entrepreneurship Activity:From the Perspective of Municipal Bonds

创业活动是城市经济活力的集中体现,也是实现经济高质量发展的重要驱动力。创业活动既需要市场激励,也离不开公共投资的支持,而地方融资平台公司发行的城投债为研究公共投资与城市创业活跃度的内在联系提供了一个独特且重要的视角。文章利用269个地级市2006—2017年的面板数据,实证分析了城投债对城市创业活跃度的影响及其作用机制。研究发现,城投债对城市创业活跃度存在显著的正向促进效应。异质性分析发现,城投债对第二产业和第三产业企业、小微企业以及非国有企业的创业活跃度影响更突出。机制分析表明,城投债通过完善城市基础设施体系、提高城市公共服务水平和缓解融资约束等渠道促进了城市创业活跃度的提高。进一步分析表明,城投债对创业活跃度的积极影响主要来自市场化程度较高的地方融资平台公司;市场化程度较低的地方融资平台公司所发行的城投债对城市创业活跃度并无显著影响,甚至会产生一定的负面作用。文章的研究结论有助于深刻认识地方政府公共投资在助力城市建设中如何发挥积极功效,为协同地方融资平台公司加快市场化转型和城市增强创业活力提供了参考。

Entrepreneurship activity is a concentrated manifestation of urban economic vitality,and also an important driver for achieving high-quality economic development.Entrepreneurship activity not only needs market incentives,but also relies on the support of public investment.Municipal bonds issued by financing platforms provide a unique and important perspective for studying the intrinsic link between public investment and urban entrepreneurship activity.This paper empirically examines the impact of municipal bonds on urban entrepreneurship activity using panel data of 269 prefecture-level cities from 2006 to 2017.It is found that municipal bond issuance significantly increases urban entrepreneurship activity.Heterogeneity analysis finds that the impact of municipal bonds on entrepreneurship activity is more prominent among secondary and tertiary sector enterprises,small and micro enterprises,and non-state enterprises.Mechanism testing indicates that improving infrastructure,enhancing the level of urban public services,and alleviating financing constraints are the mechanisms by which municipal bonds affect urban entrepreneurship activity.Further analysis indicates that for financing platforms with a high degree of marketization,municipal bond issuance has a more significant impact on urban entrepreneurship activity.The contributions of this paper are as follows:(1)There is a lack of literature on the study of urban entrepreneurial activity from the perspective of public investment.This paper expands the research scope of factors affecting entrepreneurship activity in the Chinese context.(2)Based on the theoretical framework of entrepreneurship situations,this paper systematically investigates the mechanism of municipal bonds on urban entrepreneurship activity from the two dimensions of spatial situation and institutional situation,and the three channels of infrastructure construction,urban public services,and financing constraints,which contributes to understanding the inherent mechanism of how public investment promotes high-quality urban economic development.(3)From the perspective of municipal bonds,this paper confirms the positive effect of public investment on promoting urban entrepreneurship activity,providing policy insights for resolving local debt risks in development at this stage.