The Impact of Digital Inclusive Finance on Corporate Over-indebtedness:A Financial Friction Perspective
Maintaining corporate debt at prudent levels and mitigating excessive indebtedness are crucial microeconomic strate-gies for preventing systemic financial risks.This study analyzes the impact of digital inclusive finance on corporate over-indebted-ness using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2021.The findings indicate that digital inclusive finance sig-nificantly reduces corporate over-indebtedness,a conclusion that remains robust through various rigorous tests for robustness and en-dogeneity.Further mechanism analysis reveals that digital inclusive finance effectively alleviates corporate over-indebtedness by re-ducing financial frictions.Notably,this mitigating effect is particularly pronounced in cases where companies face severe pre-exist-ing financial frictions,such as those not included in policy-supported industries and those led by executives without a financial background.
digital inclusive financefinancial fractionscapital structurecorporate over-indebtedness