Research On The Impact Of Digital Finance On Investment Efficiency Of Listed Enterprises

Investment is the core economic activity of enterprises.Efficient investment can better encourage enterprises to allocate resources to projects that are more conducive to enhancing enterprise value,which is of great significance to enterprises and national economy.With the rapid development of China’s economy,the continuous promotion and optimization of the capital market reform,and the continuous improvement of the market economy system,the investment scale of enterprises has gradually expanded.However,the investment efficiency is not satisfactory,and inefficient investment is widespread in all walks of life.It is an important topic for many scholars to study the investment efficiency of enterprises and seek solutions to provide reference for the development of the real economy.In recent years,the new economic form represented by the digital economy has brought great changes to the global economy and people’s life,among which,digital finance has become the focus of attention and research in all countries.Compared with traditional financial services,digital finance can reduce information asymmetry,enrich external financing channels,expand the scope of financial services,and reduce the cost of financial services.Therefore,digital finance can ease financing constraints and optimize corporate governance,thus affecting corporate investment efficiency.Therefore,it is necessary to study the relationship between digital finance and corporate investment efficiency.By summarizing the relevant theories and concepts in previous studies,this paper takes the A-share and B-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from2012 to 2020 as the research object and conducts empirical research on 23,758 panel data.Firstly,the residual efficiency model is used to estimate corporate investment efficiency,which is divided into underinvestment and overinvestment,and investment efficiency,underinvestment and overinvestment are taken as explained variables.Taking the digital inclusive finance index of Peking University as an explanatory variable,the two-way fixed effect model is adopted to carry out empirical benchmark regression and explore the role of digital finance on corporate investment efficiency.Secondly,the mediating effect stepwise regression method is used to test the mediating effect of financing constraints between digital finance and underinvestment,and agency cost between digital finance and overinvestment.The next step is to conduct heterogeneity analysis in terms of scale and ownership nature,and explore the deep-level reasons for the difference in impact.Finally,the robustness of the research results is tested by replacing the provincial index of digital finance with the municipal index,changing the measurement model of enterprise investment efficiency,and using the instrumental variable method to alleviate the endogeneity.The results of this paper show that:(1)digital finance can promote the improvement of corporate investment efficiency;(2)Financial constraints and agency costs have an intermediary effect.Digital finance can alleviate financial constraints to reduce underinvestment and agency conflict to reduce overinvestment,thus improving investment efficiency;(3)Compared with state-owned enterprises and large-scale enterprises,digital finance plays a more significant role in improving the investment efficiency of small enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises.Finally,the paper puts forward targeted countermeasures:(1)the government should give full play to the role of digital finance in the investment;(2)Financial institutions should actively carry out digital transformation;(3)Real enterprises should organically combine operation and development with digital finance;(4)Regulatory authorities should strengthen supervision of digital finance.The innovation of this paper is as follows:(1)the research on investment efficiency in this paper is more detailed and specific.(2)This paper enriches the perspective of research on corporate investment.Sorting out the literature,it is found that previous scholars have less explored the impact of digital finance on investment efficiency.(3)This paper innovatively introduces agency cost to measure the level of corporate governance.It also enriches the application of financing constraints theory and agency conflict theory in the field of corporate investment.