The Regional Peer Effect Of Corporate Debt

As an important part of corporate financing decisions,the debt level of an enterprise not only determines the liquidity and risk of corporate liabilities and assets,but also affects the strategic implementation and future development of the enterprise.The traditional theory of analyzing the influencing factors of corporate debt decision-making often regards the enterprise as an independent individual and ignores the characteristics of other enterprises.However,the integration of information search and interactive learning in the daily decision-making of an enterprise is crucial to all aspects of the enterprise.Therefore,the peer effect formed by the cross-integration of different disciplines provides a new analytical perspective on the strategic interaction in corporate debt decision-making.The research object of this paper is to select all listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A shares,and use listed companies in the same province as a reference group to study whether the debt ratio of regional companion companies affects the listed company's own debt level and new debt decisions.The empirical results show that peers in the same region play an important role in the debt decision of listed companies,and the peer effect is reflected in the debt level decision of the company and whether the company decides whether to add new liabilities.In order to accurately verify the existence of peer effects,this paper uses Probit and OLS model regression,and uses PSM,difference test and other methods to exclude individual factors,regional factors and alternative interpretations of self-selection effects and to conduct related robustness tests After that,the debt level of enterprises in the same region still has significant peer effects.Whether the company's new liabilities are positively related to the proportion of new companies in the province where the company is located;the company's debt ratio is positively related to the debt ratio of the peers in the province where the company is located.In the grouping test on the sample data,it is found that non-leading companies are more dependent on peer companies' debt decisions than leading companies;companies with lower financing constraints have more significant peer effects than those with higher financing constraints;relative to the market In areas with a higher degree of change,the companion effect is more pronounced in areas with a lower degree of marketization.The conclusion of this paper expands the structure of existing corporate debt analysis and enriches the study of peer effects in corporate debt behavior.From a micro perspective,it analyzes more factors that affect corporate debt,which helps all parties in the market to deeply understand the company's decision-making wisdom and provides a certain reference for the implementation of corporate debt-related policies.