Research On The Impact Of Digital Inclusive Finance On Financing Constraints Of SMEs

SMEs occupy an important position in China’s economic development,yet because of the macro environment and their own characteristics,SMEs have always had difficulty in getting rid of financing problems.Although the state and relevant government departments have formulated a series of supportive policies for SME financing,the contradiction between supply and demand for financing is still difficult to eradicate.Therefore,seeking new ways to solve the financing problems of SMEs is of great significance to the future development of enterprises.Digital inclusive finance is a breakthrough to alleviate the financing problems of SMEs.Compared with traditional inclusive finance,digital inclusive finance places more emphasis on the technological attributes of finance,promoting product innovation through the combination of information technology,lowering financing barriers,improving financing efficiency and unblocking financing channels,thereby helping SMEs to get out of their predicament.In order to thoroughly study the correlation between the development of digital inclusive finance and the financing constraints of SMEs,this thesis systematically compares the two aspects of digital inclusive finance and corporate financing constraints and deduces the impact model between the two from the perspective of economic theory.On this basis,China’s listed companies on the SME board are selected as the research object,an assignment score model of financing constraints is constructed to measure the degree of financing constraints suffered by SMEs in 2014-2020,and a two-way fixed effect model and a mediating effect model are used for empirical testing.The research results show that:(1)digital inclusive finance has a significant alleviating effect on the financing constraints of SMEs and shows a decreasing effect in the time series;(2)from the perspective of both the depth of use and coverage of digital inclusive finance,it is more crucial to explore the depth of use in promoting SME financing.(3)The effect of digital inclusive finance on alleviating the financing constraints of SMEs is heterogeneous and can correct the mismatch of attributes and areas of traditional financial lending services;(4)From the perspective of geographical characteristics,the development of digital inclusive finance is more dependent on the degree of economic development and shows a stronger relief of financing for SMEs in the eastern regions of China.(5)Through the two paths of reducing SMEs’ financing costs and avoiding operational risks,digital inclusive finance increases the internal capital sources of enterprises and drives them to eliminate unnecessary leverage,ultimately achieving the purpose of helping SMEs out of financing difficulties.Based on the above research findings,this thesis proposes policy recommendations to empower SME financing with digital inclusive finance from three aspects: the government,financial institutions and SMEs.Drawing on the theoretical basis of previous studies,this thesis constructs a comprehensive index to measure financing constraints and empirically tests the impact of digital inclusive finance on alleviating the financing constraints of SMEs from three aspects:dynamic effect,heterogeneity test and intermediary mechanism.This thesis has important practical implications for improving the problems of traditional financial institutions in China and exploring in depth the mechanism of digital inclusive finance to alleviate the financing constraints of SMEs.