| At present,the COVID-19 epidemic in the world has not been effectively controlled,the international macroeconomic environment uncertainties increase,coupled with China’s economy is in a critical period of structural adjustment and driving force transformation,the China’s economy continues to increase downward pressure.Based on the above background,the Central Economic Work Conference in 2021 explicitly requested that"economic work should be stable and seek progress in a stable manner",and pointed out that "we should correctly understand and grasp the prevention and resolution of major risks".It can be seen that achieving a long-term balance between stable growth and risk prevention is still the basic framework of macroeconomic policy during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.As a problem associated with the economic stimulus policy after the financial crisis in 2008,high corporate debt leverage and high financing costs have become an important issue in the new development stage that affects the overall situation of stable growth and risk prevention in China,and it is of great theoretical and practical significance to explore them in depth.In essence,leverage and cost can be regarded as two sides of the same coin of corporate debt financing.On the one hand,in response to the global financial crisis in 2008,the Chinese government chose a debt-driven growth model to quell its adverse impact on the domestic economy,which led to a rising level of debt leverage in China and outstanding structural leverage conflicts among enterprises.On the other hand,the continued rise of debt leverage has exacerbated the credit risk of enterprises’ inability to repay capital and interest on time.In terms of China’s current financial system,the sources of funds for corporate debt financing include indirect financing channels mainly from commercial banks and direct financing channels mainly from the bond market,and creditors such as commercial banks and bond investors will increase the risk premium on corporate lending funds,thus creating a ratchet effect on debt leverage and financing cost.Therefore,how to promote the double reduction of corporate debt leverage and financing cost,so as to realize the "reduction of quantity and improvement of quality" of corporate debt financing has become the key to China’s high-quality economic development and the prevention and resolution of major risks.At the same time,Fintech,which relies on "ABCDI" cutting-edge underlying technologies such as artificial intelligence,blockchain,cloud computing,big data and Internet of Things,is gradually becoming an important breakthrough point for global economic innovation and change.In essence,Fintech is not divorced from the basic category of finance,and its core role is to empower traditional financial industry and real enterprises through emerging technologies such as "ABCDI".Then,does the economic spillover effect of Fintech development affect the actual demand of corporate debt financing to "reduce quantity and improve quality"?Specifically,in terms of leverage,how does Fintech development affect corporate debt leverage?What role will it play in the strategic goal of structural deleveraging?In terms of cost level,how does Fintech development affect bank loan cost and bond financing cost respectively in the indirect financing channel mainly through commercial banks and the direct financing channel mainly through the bond market?Based on the real market environment in China,this paper combines the dual perspectives of debt leverage and financing cost,and then provides answers and policy recommendations on the important topic of how Fintech affects corporate debt financing through theoretical analysis and empirical research.For the topic of Fintech and corporate debt financing,the main findings of the paper are as follows.First,by portraying the typical characteristics of Fintech development in China,it is found that China’s Fintech development has distinctive spatial and temporal divergent characteristics.On the one hand,both from the demand side and the supply side,China’s Fintech development level achieved a leapfrog development from 2011 to 2020,and generally maintained a long-term growth trend,which can be specifically divided into three development stages of accumulation,bottleneck and stability according to its historical growth.On the other hand,the significant differences in factor endowment and institutional environment between regions make China’s Fintech development show typical regional differentiation characteristics.To be specific,China’s Fintech development not only shows the spatial variability of "high in the east and low in the west" and "increasing with the city level",but also has obvious spatial agglomeration in the dimension of provinces and cities.The σ convergence test based on the coefficient of variation shows that China’s Fintech development has spatial convergence.Second,by studying the relationship between Fintech and corporate debt leverage,it is found that:(1)The better the level of Fintech development,the lower the level of debt leverage of listed companies,there is a significant negative correlation between Fintech and corporate debt leverage,and this conclusion remains robust under the scenario of considering endogeneity issues by using extended prediction intervals,adding control variables and instrumental variables tests.(2)On the one hand,Fintech development can improve the quality of internal control,stabilize corporate operating risks,and encourage enterprises to actively reduce external leverage financing to avoid excessive risk taking.On the other hand,it can improve the efficiency of credit resource allocation and suppress enterprises’ passive leveraging financing needs.(3)The effect of Fintech development in reducing corporate debt leverage is only manifested in state-owned,large-scale and long-established enterprises,indicating that Fintech development helps alleviate the phenomenon of debt leverage fragmentation and thus achieve the strategic goal of structural deleveraging.(4)Fintech development significantly reduces the financial leverage of enterprises,mainly bank loans and bond financing,but has no significant impact on the operating leverage of enterprises,mainly commercial credit,which supports that Fintech development does not directly and adversely affect the healthy operation of enterprises while reducing their debt risk.Third,by examining the relationship between Fintech and bank loan costs,it is found that:(1)The better the level of Fintech development,the lower the cost of obtaining bank loans for listed companies,there is a significant negative correlation between Fintech and bank loan costs,and this finding remains robust to the use of extended prediction intervals,the addition of control variables,instrumental variables tests and double difference models to deal with the endogeneity problem.(2)Fintech development firstly changes banks’risk-taking propensity and loan pricing decisions by intensifying the degree of competition in the banking industry.Secondly,it reduces the corporate credit risk faced by banks by mitigating corporate financial risk.Finally,it reduces the degree of information asymmetry between banks and firms by optimizing the information environment between banks and firms.(3)In the period of high economic policy uncertainty,provinces with low marketization and strong financial regulation,the effect of Fintech development in reducing banks’ lending costs is more significant,reflecting the "stabilizer" effect of Fintech development in the process of achieving the organic combination of "proactive government" and "effective market".(4)Fintech development has a moderating effect on corporate financing constraints,indicating that Fintech can,to a certain extent,escort the high-quality development of real enterprises.Fourth,by studying the relationship between Fintech and bond financing costs,it is found that:(1)The better the level of Fintech development,the smaller the secondary market credit spreads of corporate bonds issued by listed companies,there is a significant negative correlation between Fintech and the cost of bond financing,and this conclusion is still valid under the premise that the endogeneity problem is mitigated by extending the prediction interval,adding control variables,instrumental variables test and double difference model.(2)Fintech development improves the ability and willingness of companies to repay capital and interest on time by enhancing their value and external monitoring,thus mitigating the default risk faced by bond investors,and at the same time can provide incremental information for investors to correctly assess the true value of companies,thus reducing the information risk caused by information uncertainty.(3)The reduction effect of Fintech development on corporate bond financing cost is more obvious in the samples with dual job,low analyst attention,poor audit quality and low debt credit rating,indicating that effective internal and external interest protection mechanisms are directly related to corporate risk,which in turn affects the risk compensation demanded by bondholders.(4)Fintech development can effectively improve the business performance,market performance and long-term performance of enterprises,which shows that Fintech development can effectively protect the interests of creditors,and also confirms the positive effect of Fintech development on stable growth of real enterprises based on the enterprise level.In general,this paper selects some research perspectives with Chinese reality characteristics and combines many novel research methods to explore the relationship between Fintech and corporate debt financing from multiple dimensions.Compared with the existing research,the innovations of this paper are mainly reflected in the following aspects.Firstly,the innovation of research perspective.Based on the dual dimensions of debt leverage and financing cost,this paper provides a new perspective for the research on the spillover effect of Fintech,thus expanding the research boundary between Fintech and the real economy,and systematically explores the impact of Fintech on enterprise debt leverage and financing cost and its mechanism of action through theoretical analysis and empirical testing.This paper provides theoretical support and empirical solutions to the important proposition whether Fintech is conducive to the dynamic balance of stable growth and risk prevention.Secondly,the innovation of research paradigm.Based on the 2021 Central Economic Work Conference "stabilizing the overall situation,coordinating,classifying,and precisely dismantling" policy as the guiding ideology,according to the new characteristics of Chinese corporate debt financing in the new normal development stage based on the classic theoretical lineage and China’s realistic needs,with the basic principle of combining comprehensive system and focus.It provides a new research paradigm for correctly understanding and grasping the problem of corporate debt financing.Finally,the innovation of research methods.This paper exploits the quasi-natural experiment formed by several policy interventions in China,and explores the causal effect between Fintech and corporate debt financing cost by constructing a double difference model,which provides a new solution to the usual endogeneity problem in the research on Fintech’s impact on real enterprises and helps to obtain cleaner and more reliable research conclusions. |
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