Economic Uncertainty And Corporate Business Credit Financing

Since 2000,the scale of commercial credit financing in China has been growing.The special feature of commercial credit is that it has both business and financial attributes.As a business tool,enterprises seek commercial credit to ensure production efficiency and provide commercial credit in exchange for business performance,market share and maintenance of customer relationships;as a liquid asset,enterprises can effectively relieve capital pressure and reduce financing costs through commercial credit financing,and can even pledge commercial credit for refinancing.Thus,the reasonable use of commercial credit is not only beneficial to the circulation of goods,but also can alleviate the problem of poor financing channels for enterprises.Most scholars currently study commercial credit on the premise of macroeconomic invariance,take the net commercial credit obtained by enterprises as the research object,and explore the factors that restrict enterprises from obtaining commercial credit financing at the micro level.In fact,the macroeconomic environment is a prerequisite for the survival and development of enterprises that cannot be ignored.As China’s economy enters the stage of economic structure optimization and adjustment,the state has introduced a series of policies to promote economic transformation.In a macro environment where economic policies are adjusted more frequently,enterprises face a significant increase in economic policy uncertainty,which will affect their decisions and behaviors.In order to explore how macroeconomic uncertainty changes enterprises’ business credit decisions,this paper distinguishes business credit into business credit obtained by enterprises and business credit provided by enterprises,discusses how the rise in macroeconomic uncertainty affects enterprises’ motivation to use and provide business credit respectively,and proposes alternative channels of financing,channels of financialization of enterprises in which economic uncertainty affects enterprises’ business credit usage,and cash flow management channel and supply chain relationship channel for economic uncertainty affecting firms’ commercial supply situation,and conduct regression tests using unbalanced panel data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen,China,from 2011 to 2019.Firstly,the impact of economic uncertainty on business credit is tested,next,its mechanism of action is analyzed,and finally,the variance analysis is conducted at the level of enterprise categories.The main findings of this paper are as follows:(1)the rise of economic uncertainty significantly promotes the commercial credit financing obtained by enterprises,but the promotion effect on non-state enterprises is not significant;(2)economic uncertainty promotes commercial credit financing through the financing substitution channel on the one hand,and inhibits commercial credit financing through the corporate financialization channel on the other hand,but the promotion effect is more influential;(3)the rise significantly inhibits the scale of commercial credit provided by enterprises,but the inhibitory effect on non-manufacturing enterprises is not obvious;(4)economic uncertainty inhibits the scale of commercial credit supply by enterprises through cash flow management channel and supply chain relationship channel;(5)the inhibitory effect of economic uncertainty on the scale of commercial credit supply is moderated by enterprise financing constraints.The contribution of this paper is to study the impact of economic uncertainty on non-traditional financing methods of commercial credit financing,and to fully consider the characteristics of state-owned enterprises in China,which are creditleaning and attach great importance to the development of manufacturing industry,and to conduct a detailed analysis of how economic uncertainty works in terms of commercial credit acquisition and provision by distinguishing the nature of property rights and industry categories.The paper points out that non-state-owned enterprises also face "financing discrimination" in the commercial credit financing market,and that manufacturing enterprises "de-realize" when economic uncertainty rises.Secondly,the paper takes into account the latest research trends such as financialization of enterprises and supply chain relationships,which have practical implications for the construction of China’s credit system,the improvement of capital markets and enterprise management.