Digital Infrastructure and Enterprise Total Factor Productivity—Evaluation Based on the “Broadband China” Pilot Policy

本文选择2011~2023年我国A股上市公司作为研究样本，将“宽带中国”作为数字基础设施的一次“拟外生冲击”，采用双重差分法实证检验了数字基础设施建设对企业全要素生产率的影响与内在机制。结果显示数字基础设施建设对于企业全要素生产率具有显著的正向影响，在经过一系列稳健性检验后依然成立。机制分析表明：数字基础设施建设能够通过缓解企业融资约束和加强社会监督来促进全要素生产率的提高。异质性分析发现：在东部地区和民营企业的影响更为显著。建议深化数字基础设施建设、加快数字基础设施与中西部地区数据要素产业链融合、加大公共数据开放力度以及提高企业数字经济创新水平。文章丰富了数字基础设施和企业的内在机理关系以及“宽带中国”相关研究理论。This paper selects China’s A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2023 as the research sample, takes “Broadband China” as a “proposed exogenous shock” of digital infrastructure, and empirically examines the impact of digital infrastructure construction on the total factor productivity and the internal mechanism of the enterprise using double-difference method. We empirically examine the impact of digital infrastructure construction on the total factor productivity of enterprises and its internal mechanism using the double-difference method. The results show that digital infrastructure construction has a significant positive impact on enterprise total factor productivity, which still holds after a series of robustness tests. The mechanism analysis shows that digital infrastructure construction can promote the increase of total factor productivity by alleviating the financing constraints of enterprises and strengthening social supervision. Heterogeneity analysis finds that the impact is more significant in the eastern region and private enterprises. It is recommended to deepen the construction of digital infrastructure, accelerate the integration of digital infrastructure with the data factor industry chain in the central and western regions, increase the openness of public data as well as improve the level of enterprises’ digital economy innovation. The article enriches the relationship between digital infrastructure and enterprises’ internal mechanism and the research theory of “Broadband China”.