Public data openness and firms’ human capital structure: Evidence from a Quasi-natural experiment

Human capital is a crucial micro foundation for enhancing firm competitiveness and driving economic growth. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2007 to 2024, this study exploits the staggered rollout of local government public data open platforms as a quasi-natural experiment and employs a two-way fixed effects staggered difference-in-differences approach to examine the impact of public data openness on firms’ human capital upgrading. We find that public data openness significantly improves firms’ human capital structure. Digital transformation, alleviation of financing constraints, and increased investment are important underlying mechanisms. Capital–skill complementarity increases the employment of high-skilled labor more than that of non-high-skilled labor, upgrading firms’ human capital structure. Heterogeneity analyses further indicate that these effects are more pronounced for firms in the eastern region, in specific industries, and for state-owned enterprises. These findings provide valuable insights regarding the influence of public data openness on promoting firms’ higher-skilled employment and human capital structure upgrading, with significant policy implications for other developing countries with similar institutional environments to China.