Research On The Impact Of Digital Inclusive Finance On The Debt Financing Cost Of SMES

"SMES develop,employment increase,economic flourish".Small and mediumsized enterprises are the new force driving economic growth and social development.They are an important force in creating jobs,improving people’s livelihood and energizing the market.However,credit constraints such as "difficult and expensive financing" have always been a thorny problem plaguing the development of small and medium-sized enterprises.In the context of increasing uncertainties,small and medium-sized enterprises(SMES)have increasingly become an important target group for digital financial inclusion.Digital financial inclusion has changed the exclusion of traditional finance,enabled SMES to access more financial services,and provided a new way to solve the problem of "difficult and expensive financing" for SMES.Therefore,it is of great significance to explore the theoretical logic and mechanism of the impact of the development of digital inclusive finance on the debt financing cost of SMES.Firstly,this paper reviews the literature on digital inclusion finance and SMES financing at home and abroad,expounds the theory of information asymmetry,transaction cost theory,traditional financial exclusion theory,inclusive finance and the long tail theory,and analyzes the current situation and policy background of SME debt financing.Secondly,based on the three channels of bank competition,information transparency and enterprise internal control,this paper explores the internal mechanism of the influence of digital inclusive finance on the debt financing cost of SMES.Finally,this paper takes the panel data of SMES and GEM listed enterprises from2011 to 2020 as samples,and uses fixed effect model and intermediary effect model to empirically test the impact of the development of digital inclusive finance on the debt financing cost of SMES.The results show that: first,the development of digital inclusive finance has a significant effect on reducing the debt financing cost of SMES.This conclusion is still valid after considering the endogeneity test and multiple robustness test,with significant heterogeneity.Among them,the use depth of the secondary index of digital financial inclusion index has the most significant effect on the reduction of debt financing cost,followed by the coverage breadth,and the digitalization degree has no significant effect on the reduction of debt financing cost.Second,digital inclusive finance reduces the debt financing costs of SMES through three transmission paths: bank competition,information transparency and enterprise internal control.Based on the theoretical analysis and empirical test of the impact of digital inclusive finance on the debt financing cost of SMES,this paper summarizes and puts forward the following four suggestions.First,strengthen the top-level design of inclusive finance and optimize the financing environment for small and medium-sized enterprises;Second,financial institutions should deepen digital transformation and promote financial supply-side reform.Third,strengthen the construction of social credit system,improve the quality of information disclosure;Fourth,SMES are empowered by digital elements to improve the quality of internal control.