Research On The Impact Of China High-speed Railway Opening On Enterprise Debt Financing Cost

The global economic situation is depressed due to the ravage of COVID-19,which makes the operation of the company face many uncertain factors,while the survival and development of the company cannot do without capital.Debt financing is one of the important sources of capital for enterprises,so the cost of debt financing is of great importance for enterprise operation.As the main way of debt financing in China,a fundamental problem of bank credit risk management is "asymmetric information".So as to reduce the risk resulted from information asymmetry,the bank will synthesize the information of all parties to grade the enterprise,evaluate the default risk of the enterprise after the loan,and track the behavior of the enterprise in the loan to ensure that the money can be returned on time when the loan is due.With the continuous development of highspeed railway construction,the spatial and temporal distance between regions has been reduced,the flow of capital,information,human resources and other resources between regions is accelerating,which is convenient for analysts,auditors,institutional investors to conduct field visits.As a result,the quality of "hard information" is improved,and more "soft information" could be got,reducing the degree of information asymmetry between enterprises and the external.At the same time,with the increase of the frequency of field visits by external agencies,the supervision of enterprise operation is strengthened and the agency problem between enterprises and creditors is alleviated.At present,the research on the economic consequences of the opening of high-speed railway has gradually shifted from the macro perspective of regional economy and resource flow to the micro perspective of enterprise operation and management,but there is a lack of research on the investment and financing behavior of enterprises.Researches on the influencing factors of debt financing cost mainly focus on the micro level of enterprises,and the macro policy.There is a lack of in-depth research on the influence of objective environmental changes on debt financing cost of enterprises,at the same time its mechanism and influence path also need to be further explored.Therefore,it is of great significance on theoretical and practical aspects to study the effect upon high-speed railway opening on the debt financing cost of enterprises.This paper selects A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets in China from 2008 to 2019 as the research object and takes the natural experiment of high-speed railway as the background to empirically examine the impact of high-speed railway on corporate debt financing cost and its mechanism by using the differential difference model.This paper finds that the opening of high-speed railway significantly reduces the debt financing cost of enterprises by alleviating agency problems and information asymmetry between enterprises and creditors.Further research shows that this effect is more obvious when the company is located in a non-coastal area,an area with a poor institutional environment,or the property rights are non-state-owned enterprises.Theoretically,this paper can provide a new perspective for the study of the financing behavior of micro enterprises by the opening of high-speed railway,enrich the factors influencing debt financing ability,and supplement the mechanism of the effect of the opening of high-speed railway on the debt financing cost of enterprises.From the practical point of view,the research results can provide reference and advice for the behavior of government,enterprises and external stakeholders.