The effect of public data openness on enterprise cross-regional investment: evidence from China

Public data openness is considered to generate significant economic and social benefits, yet the extent to which it can promote cross-regional investment by enterprises requires further in-depth investigation and empirical analysis. On the basis of data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2022, taking the provincial public data open platform as a quasinatural experiment, we investigate how public data openness facilitates enterprises’ cross-regional investment. The research findings show that the opening of public data significantly promotes enterprises’ cross-regional investment. Robustness tests confirmed our findings to be consistent and reliable and hence valid. Further analysis reveals that nonstate-owned enterprises (nonSOEs) and enterprises in the digital economy industry are more significantly affected. These findings not only enrich the literature on public data openness but also provide new theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence for enterprises’ cross-regional investment.