Environmental policy stringency and corporate financial risk: Are politically connected firms better off?

Information asymmetry remains a central barrier to financial inclusion, yet whether government data openness can alleviate this friction lacks causal evidence. We address this gap by exploiting the staggered launch of open government data platforms across 289 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2023 as a quasi-natural experiment. Combining staggered difference-in-differences with double machine learning methods, we find that public data openness significantly promotes digital financial inclusion. This effect operates through two channels: stimulating fintech innovation via expanded data element supply and reducing information asymmetry via enriched credit information environments. Heterogeneity analysis reveals stronger effects in cities with higher governance capacity, greater innovation activity, and larger populations. Spatial econometric analysis further identifies positive cross-regional spillovers. These findings establish public data openness as a supply-side institutional driver of inclusive finance and provide evidence for designing data governance policies in developing economies. • Environmental policy stringency (EPS) raises corporate financial risk. • The outcome is valid for stringency in both market- and non-market-based policies. • Firm size and financial constraints do not influence this effect. • Politically connected firms are less prone to such risks. • Connected firms can mitigate the reduction in capital investment during high EPS.