Can Digital Government Reform Enhance Commercial Credit Financing? Mechanisms and Heterogeneity Analysis

This paper investigates whether digital government reform can enhance corporate commercial credit financing and explores the underlying mechanisms and heterogeneous effects. Using China's big data management institutional reforms as a quasi-natural experiment and a sample of listed firms from 2007 to 2023, this study employ a difference-in-differences approach to identify the causal impact. The results show that digital government governance (DGOV) significantly promotes corporate commercial credit financing. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the promotional effect is more pronounced for firms in regions with higher marketization levels and those in less competitive industries. Mechanism tests reveal that DGOV facilitates commercial credit financing primarily by fostering corporate digital transformation, improving information transparency, and strengthening financial institution support. These findings provide robust micro-evidence on the real effects of digital government reform on corporate financing behavior and offer valuable insights for optimizing digital governance and enhancing the corporate financing ecosystem.