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| Government Service Informatization and High-quality Development of the Bond Market——A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “National Pilot Cities for Information Benefiting the People” |
| ZHEN Hongxian, LI Jia, WANG Xi
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| School of Accounting/China Internal Control Research Center/School of Fintech, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics |
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Abstract Strengthening the construction of digital government is an important measure for innovating government governance concepts and methods, forming a new pattern of digital governance, and advancing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. Government service informatization is the foundation and prerequisite for building a digital government, and it is also an important component of digital government construction. Its core concept is to use information technology to break down “information silos” among government departments, eliminate data barriers between government and market entities, and develop efficient and collaborative digital governance. Existing research has shown that government service informatization can promote enterprise innovation, enhance investment efficiency, and drive high-quality economic development. The high-quality development of the bond market is a crucial component of such development, but few studies have explored the impact of government service informatization on the high-quality development of the bond market.
We use the National Pilot Policy for Information Benefiting the People as an exogenous shock and employ a difference-in-differences (DID) model to examine the impact of government service informatization on the high-quality development of the bond market. We find that compared with non-pilot areas, corporate bond credit risk in the pilot cities for Information Benefiting the People is significantly lower. Mechanism analysis reveals that government service informatization mitigates bond credit risk by alleviating information asymmetry, reducing institutional transaction costs, curbing the probability of corporate default, and improving bond liquidity. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that the effect of government service informatization on reducing bond credit risk is more pronounced in regions with higher environmental uncertainty, lower levels of government websites information disclosure, greater regional information barriers, and lower bond credit ratings. Further analysis shows that government service informatization helps improve bond pricing efficiency and helps curb credit rating inflation.
This paper makes the following contributions. First, taking the high-quality development of the bond market as the research perspective, this paper verifies the positive impact of government service informatization on the development of the corporate bond market. This finding enriches the research on the economic consequences of government service informatization from a financing perspective and provides valuable insights for the design of subsequent related studies. Second, from the perspective of big data empowerment, we explore the role of government service informatization in reducing bond credit risk, improving bond pricing efficiency, and curbing credit rating inflation, thereby enriching the literature on the factors influencing the high-quality development of the bond market. Third, we attempt to explore the information, service, supervision, and confidence empowerment of government service informatization, providing useful enlightenment on how government service informatization can accelerate the transformation of government functions, enhance service efficiency, improve social expectations, and promote the high-quality development of the bond market.
This paper offers the following policy implications. First, we emphasize the importance of advancing government service informatization to build an efficient, service-oriented government. The government should make full use of information technologies such as the Internet, big data, and cloud computing to comprehensively improve government services. Second, we highlight the need to fully develop and utilize government data and deepen the promotion of open data sharing. The government should promote the integration of multi-dimensional and multi-level data resources, improve the mechanism for sharing and disclosing government data, and fully release the value of data. Third, this paper stresses the active role that government service informatization can play in promoting the high-quality development of the bond market. By providing transparent and efficient government services, it can reduce the operational burdens on enterprises and improve the accessibility to government information resources, effectively reducing information frictions among market entities, ultimately contributing to the high-quality development of the bond market.
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Received: 14 March 2024
Published: 01 February 2025
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| Cite this article: |
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ZHEN Hongxian,LI Jia,WANG Xi. Government Service Informatization and High-quality Development of the Bond Market——A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the “National Pilot Cities for Information Benefiting the People”[J]. Journal of Financial Research,
2025, 535(1): 152-169.
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| URL: |
| http://www.jryj.org.cn/EN/ OR http://www.jryj.org.cn/EN/Y2025/V535/I1/152 |
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