Research On The Impact Of Digital Finance Inclusion On Debt Maturity Structure Of Enterprises

Debt financing is an important way of external financing for enterprises,while the debt maturity structure plays a significant role in the debt structure of enterprises.Presently,the proportion of long-term liabilities in the total liabilities of enterprises in our country is below normal,causing the debt maturity structure unbalanced,which is not only conducive to the realization of long-term business strategies,but also easily leads to risks.The imperfect financial market is a major reason for the unbalanced maturity structure of corporate debt in our country.As an innovative financial model that deeply integrates "digital finance" and"inclusive finance",digital finance inclusion has achieved considerable development in coverage,depth of usage and digitization degrees in recent years,which is expected to become a realistic starting point for optimizing the maturity structure of corporate debt.Therefore,this paper focuses on the impact of digital inclusive finance on the maturity structure of corporate debt,which has important practical and theoretical significance.Firstly,this paper selects A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2021 as the research sample,and empirically tests the relationship between digital financial inclusion and the maturity structure of corporate debt through fixed-effect empirical tests,as well as the mediating effect of financial mismatch,the moderating effect of economic policy and location.Secondly,this paper analyzes the differential impact of digital financial inclusion on corporate debt maturity structures when the firms have different characteristics.Finally,the paper further analyzes the economic consequences of digital financial inclusion affecting the maturity structure of corporate debt.The study found that digital financial inclusion can optimize the maturity structure of corporate debt and increase the proportion of long-term debt to total debt,in which financial misallocation played a partly intermediary role.When the economic policy uncertainty is higher,and the enterprises are located in the central and western regions,are small in scale,privately owned,and non-high-tech enterprises,the effect of digital inclusive finance on the optimization of corporate debt maturity structure is more significant.This paper also finds that digital financial inclusion can reduce the risk of corporate default by optimizing the maturity structure of corporate debt.This paper enriches existing research from the following aspects.Firstly,the innovation of research perspective,focusing on the debt maturity structure of enterprises,enriches the research on the positive impact of digital inclusive finance on the micro enterprise level.Secondly,the innovation of research content includes the other major participants in the corporate lending market,enriching the research on the influencing factors of debt maturity structure.Thirdly,the innovation of the heterogeneity dimension explores the differential effects of digital inclusive finance on corporate financial behavior at the macro level(regional,economic policy uncertainty)and micro level(enterprise size,property rights,technological attributes)when the characteristics change.This paper has the following shortcomings.Firstly,the measurement methods for digital inclusive finance need to be enriched,and future research can use multi-dimensional indicators to measure digital inclusive finance.Secondly,the research perspective at the meso level needs to be supplemented,and further research can explore the role of industry level characteristics in it.Thirdly,the sample types need to be enriched.In the future,further research can establish a database of small and micro enterprises to better explore the inclusive features of digital finance.