Public Cultural Service Provision, Financial Development, and the Productivity of Cultural Firms: Evidence from Chinese Listed Cultural Firms

This study asks whether public cultural service provision is associated with higher productivity among Chinese A-share listed cultural firms and whether regional financial development strengthens this relationship. Using 1,140 firm-year observations from 2010–2024, we construct a 12-indicator entropy-weighted service index and estimate firm and year fixed-effects models. Public cultural services are positively associated with Levinsohn-Petrin TFP, robust to alternative measures, lags, sample exclusions, and IV estimators. Channel-consistent evidence links stronger provision to lower operating volatility, higher urbanization, and lower financing constraints. Regional credit depth and financial-sector scale strengthen the association, highlighting complementarity between cultural public provision and finance.