Public data resources and total factor productivity of enterprises: A quasi-natural experiment based on local government data opening

• Main Authors: WU, Wuping, LI, Qiheng, ZHANG, Liuyi, ZHAO, Yue
• Format: text
• Language: Chinese
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2024
• Subjects: data factor; high-quality development; open government data; public data resources; total factor productivity; Asian Studies; Databases and Information Systems; Public Administration
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soa_research/2048; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soa_research/article/3075/viewcontent/Gong_公共数据资源与企业全要素生产率_pvoa.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The opening of public data is the government’s major strategic move to release the value of data factor. However, whether these data resources are used by the public to release their value needs to be empirically tested. Therefore, based on the perspective of high-quality development of firms, this paper examines the relation between open public data and firms’ total factor productivity so as to reflect the value of public data resources in driving force of promoting firms’ high-quality development. Taking A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2019 as samples, using a natural experiment based on the launch of the local government data platform, and utilizing the staggered difference-in-differences model, this paper finds that as compared with their counterparts, firms located in provinces with their public data open have higher total factor productivity after the launch of public data platform, indicating that open public data resources can realize their value by promoting firms total factor productivity. The result holds after a variety of robustness tests. Mechanism tests reveal that the main regression effect is more pronounced for firms with managers’ greater demand for public data resources or stronger data processing capacity, or for firms with greater demand for public data resources to supervise firms. These results indicate that the promotion of total factor productivity is due to the decrease of information processing cost, which promotes the use of public data resources by internal and external stakeholders of firms. Further analyses show that the open public data reduce the operating expenses, earnings management and financing constraints of firms. This paper enriches the relevant researches on the economic consequence of public data resources and its mechanisms, provides theoretical support for the practice of open government data, and provides reliable causal evidence for the value of data resources.