The National Information-for-Citizens-Benefit Pilot Policy and Corporate Digital Transformation

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Using the implementation of the national Information-for-Citizens-Benefit pilot, this paper matches the registered location of enterprises with the annual reports and financial data of A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets from 2008 to 2024, and uses the difference-in-differences method to examine whether government information integration changes corporate digital behavior. The estimation results show that after entering the pilot, the digital word frequency in corporate annual reports increases significantly. Further analysis finds that bank loan balances rise, the internal control index improves, and the incidence of internal control failure declines. The policy effect is stronger in enterprises with higher ex-ante financing constraints; the within-group effect is significant in cities with better digital foundations, but the between-group difference across cities is not yet significant. The above evidence indicates that government information integration and government process adjustment can influence corporate digital choices, and can be explained from two aspects: external financing and internal governance.