IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pacfin/v72y2022ics0927538x22000269.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital finance and corporate bankruptcy risk: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Ji, Yu
  • Shi, Lina
  • Zhang, Shunming

Abstract

This study explores the impact of digital finance on bankruptcy risk in Chinese A-share listed firms. Using the digital finance index developed by PKU-DFIIC to measure the degree of development of regional digital finance, we find that digital finance negatively affects firms' bankruptcy risk. This effect occurs by improving firms' information transparency and mitigating their financial leverage. Furthermore, we find that this negative impact is greater in small firms and in riskier firms. This study contributes to the digital finance literature by identifying the impact of digital finance on corporations at the micro level and by providing additional evidence supporting the role of digital finance as an external governance mechanism.

Suggested Citation

  • Ji, Yu & Shi, Lina & Zhang, Shunming, 2022. "Digital finance and corporate bankruptcy risk: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:72:y:2022:i:c:s0927538x22000269
    DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2022.101731
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X22000269
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.pacfin.2022.101731?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonathan Chiu & Thorsten V Koeppl, 2019. "Blockchain-Based Settlement for Asset Trading," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1716-1753.
    2. Brogaard, Jonathan & Li, Dan & Xia, Ying, 2017. "Stock liquidity and default risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 486-502.
    3. Zhehao Jia & Yukun Shi & Cheng Yan & Meryem Duygun, 2020. "Bankruptcy prediction with financial systemic risk," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(7-8), pages 666-690, May.
    4. John Y. Campbell & Jens Hilscher & Jan Szilagyi, 2008. "In Search of Distress Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2899-2939, December.
    5. Andreas Fuster & Matthew Plosser & Philipp Schnabl & James Vickery, 2019. "The Role of Technology in Mortgage Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1854-1899.
    6. Drehmann, Mathias & Juselius, Mikael, 2014. "Evaluating early warning indicators of banking crises: Satisfying policy requirements," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 759-780.
    7. Itay Goldstein & Wei Jiang & G Andrew Karolyi, 2019. "To FinTech and Beyond," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1647-1661.
    8. Song Han & Xing Zhou, 2014. "Informed Bond Trading, Corporate Yield Spreads, and Corporate Default Prediction," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(3), pages 675-694, March.
    9. Fang, Vivian W. & Noe, Thomas H. & Tice, Sheri, 2009. "Stock market liquidity and firm value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 150-169, October.
    10. Peter Gomber & Jascha-Alexander Koch & Michael Siering, 2017. "Digital Finance and FinTech: current research and future research directions," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(5), pages 537-580, July.
    11. Mark A Chen & Qinxi Wu & Baozhong Yang, 2019. "How Valuable Is FinTech Innovation?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 2062-2106.
    12. Singhal, Rajeev & Zhu, Yun (Ellen), 2013. "Bankruptcy risk, costs and corporate diversification," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1475-1489.
    13. Caggiano, Giovanni & Calice, Pietro & Leonida, Leone, 2014. "Early warning systems and systemic banking crises in low income countries: A multinomial logit approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 258-269.
    14. Stolbov, Mikhail & Shchepeleva, Maria, 2020. "Systemic risk, economic policy uncertainty and firm bankruptcies: Evidence from multivariate causal inference," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    15. Petra Moser & Alessandra Voena, 2012. "Compulsory Licensing: Evidence from the Trading with the Enemy Act," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 396-427, February.
    16. Buchak, Greg & Matvos, Gregor & Piskorski, Tomasz & Seru, Amit, 2018. "Fintech, regulatory arbitrage, and the rise of shadow banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 453-483.
    17. Huan Tang, 2019. "Peer-to-Peer Lenders Versus Banks: Substitutes or Complements?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1900-1938.
    18. Umer Iqbal & Christopher Gan & Muhammad Nadeem, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and firm performance," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(10), pages 765-770, June.
    19. Maria Demertzis & Silvia Merler & Guntram B Wolff, 2018. "Capital Markets Union and the Fintech Opportunity," Journal of Financial Regulation, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(1), pages 157-165.
    20. Boris Vallée & Yao Zeng, 2019. "Marketplace Lending: A New Banking Paradigm?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1939-1982.
    21. Dhawan, Anirudh & Ma, Liangbo & Kim, Maria H., 2020. "Effect of corporate tax avoidance activities on firm bankruptcy risk," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).
    22. Tan, Liang, 2013. "Creditor control rights, state of nature verification, and financial reporting conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 1-22.
    23. Tykvová, Tereza & Borell, Mariela, 2012. "Do private equity owners increase risk of financial distress and bankruptcy?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 138-150.
    24. Carlos Carreira & Paulino Teixeira, 2016. "Entry and exit in severe recessions: lessons from the 2008–2013 Portuguese economic crisis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 591-617, April.
    25. Bhattacharjee Arnab & Higson Christopher & Holly Sean & Kattuman Paul, 2009. "Macroeconomic Instability and Corporate Failure: The Role of the Legal System," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-32, January.
    26. Joseph P. Byrne & Marina-Eliza Spaliara & Serafeim Tsoukas, 2016. "Firm Survival, Uncertainty, And Financial Frictions: Is There A Financial Uncertainty Accelerator?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(1), pages 375-390, January.
    27. Cheng, Maoyong & Qu, Yang, 2020. "Does bank FinTech reduce credit risk? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    28. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    29. Uhrig-Homburg, Marliese, 2005. "Cash-flow shortage as an endogenous bankruptcy reason," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1509-1534, June.
    30. Baghdadi, Ghasan A. & Nguyen, Lily H.G. & Podolski, Edward J., 2020. "Board co-option and default risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    31. Lin, K.C. & Dong, Xiaobo, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility engagement of financially distressed firms and their bankruptcy likelihood," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 32-45.
    32. Ohlson, Ja, 1980. "Financial Ratios And The Probabilistic Prediction Of Bankruptcy," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 109-131.
    33. Chatterjee, Sris & Dhillon, Upinder S. & Ramirez, Gabriel G., 1995. "Coercive tender and exchange offers in distressed high-yield debt restructurings An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 333-360, July.
    34. Hou, Xiaohui & Gao, Zhixian & Wang, Qing, 2016. "Internet finance development and banking market discipline: Evidence from China," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 88-100.
    35. Daniel Bryan & Guy Dinesh Fernando & Arindam Tripathy, 2013. "Bankruptcy risk, productivity and firm strategy," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(4), pages 309-326, October.
    36. Patrick Macnamara, 2014. "Entry and Exit with Financial Frictions," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 193, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    37. Christina Zhu, 2019. "Big Data as a Governance Mechanism," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 2021-2061.
    38. Vineet Agarwal & Richard Taffler, 2007. "Twenty‐five years of the Taffler z‐score model: Does it really have predictive ability?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 285-300.
    39. Zhang, Xuan & Ouyang, Ruolan & Liu, Ding & Xu, Liao, 2020. "Determinants of corporate default risk in China: The role of financial constraints," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 87-98.
    40. Carlos Carreira & Paulino Teixeira, 2016. "Entry and exit in severe recessions: lessons from the 2008–2013 Portuguese economic crisis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 591-617, April.
    41. Eliezer Fich & Steve Slezak, 2008. "Can corporate governance save distressed firms from bankruptcy? An empirical analysis," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 225-251, February.
    42. In Joon Kim & Krishna Ramaswamy & Suresh Sundaresan, 1993. "Does Default Risk in Coupons Affect the Valuation of Corporate Bonds?: A Contingent Claims Model," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 22(3), Fall.
    43. Norden, Lars & Silva Buston, Consuelo & Wagner, Wolf, 2014. "Financial innovation and bank behavior: Evidence from credit markets," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 130-145.
    44. Jefferson Duarte & Stephan Siegel & Lance Young, 2012. "Trust and Credit: The Role of Appearance in Peer-to-peer Lending," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(8), pages 2455-2484.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yuxin Ning & Yihan Zhang, 2023. "Does Digital Finance Improve Corporate ESG Performance? An Intermediary Role Based on Financing Constraints," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Mu, Weiwei & Liu, Kefu & Tao, Yunqing & Ye, Yongwei, 2023. "Digital finance and corporate ESG," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    3. Guo, Pin & Zhang, Cheng, 2023. "The impact of bank FinTech on liquidity creation: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Ding, Xin & Li, Jingshan & Song, Tiantian & Ding, Chenyang & Tan, Wenhao, 2023. "Does carbon emission of firms aggravate the risk of financial distress? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    5. Sun, Guanglin & Li, Ting & Ai, Yongfang & Li, Qinghai, 2023. "Digital finance and corporate financial fraud," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    6. Geng Tian, 2022. "Influence of Digital Finance on Household Leverage Ratio from the Perspective of Consumption Effect and Income Effect," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Xiaoli Hao & Xinhui Wang & Haitao Wu & Yu Hao, 2023. "Path to sustainable development: Does digital economy matter in manufacturing green total factor productivity?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 360-378, February.
    8. Ding, Qian & Huang, Jianbai & Chen, Jinyu, 2023. "Does digital finance matter for corporate green investment? Evidence from heavily polluting industries in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    9. Jinlong Lin & Xiaoxiao Chen & Guiquan Yan, 2023. "How Smart City Construction Affects Digital Inclusive Finance in China: From the Perspective of the Relationship between Government and Large Private Capital," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-17, June.
    10. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Tang, Manting & Lee, Chi-Chuan, 2023. "Reaping digital dividends: Digital inclusive finance and high-quality development of enterprises in China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(2).
    11. Swaraj S. Bharti & Kanika Prasad & Shwati Sudha & Vineeta Kumari, 2023. "Customer acceptability towards AI-enabled digital banking: a PLS-SEM approach," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(4), pages 779-793, December.
    12. Guo, Chenhao & Ke, Yun & Zhang, Jinkang, 2023. "Digital transformation along the supply chain," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    13. Zhan, Minghua & Li, Shuai & Wu, Zhouheng, 2023. "Can digital finance development improve balanced regional investment allocations in developing countries? — The evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cheng, Maoyong & Qu, Yang, 2020. "Does bank FinTech reduce credit risk? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    2. Wang, Xiaoting & Hou, Siyuan & Kyaw, Khine & Xue, Xupeng & Liu, Xueqin, 2023. "Exploring the determinants of Fintech Credit: A comprehensive analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    3. Guo, Junyan & Fang, Hanqing & Liu, Xuexin & Wang, Cizhi & Wang, Yuan, 2023. "FinTech and financing constraints of enterprises: Evidence from China," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    4. Dulani Jayasuriya Daluwathumullagamage & Alexandra Sims, 2021. "Fantastic Beasts: Blockchain Based Banking," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-43, April.
    5. Jing Jian Xiao & Chunsheng Tao, 2020. "Consumer finance/household finance: the definition and scope," China Finance Review International, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(1), pages 1-25, June.
    6. Thomas J. Chemmanur & Michael B. Imerman & Harshit Rajaiya & Qianqian Yu, 2020. "Recent Developments In The Fintech Industry," Journal of Financial Management, Markets and Institutions (JFMMI), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 8(01), pages 1-31, June.
    7. Lan Di & George X. Yuan & Tu Zeng, 2021. "The consensus equilibria of mining gap games related to the stability of Blockchain Ecosystems," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4-5), pages 419-440, March.
    8. Itay Goldstein & Wei Jiang & G Andrew Karolyi, 2019. "To FinTech and Beyond," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1647-1661.
    9. Xia, Yanchun & Qiao, Zhilin & Xie, Guanghua, 2022. "Corporate resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of digital finance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    10. Guo, Pin & Zhang, Cheng, 2023. "The impact of bank FinTech on liquidity creation: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. Nie, Zi & Ling, Xuan & Chen, Meian, 2023. "The power of technology: FinTech and corporate debt default risk in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    12. Jiang, Jinglin & Liao, Li & Wang, Zhengwei & Zhang, Xiaoyan, 2021. "Government Affiliation and Peer-To-Peer Lending Platforms in China," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 87-106.
    13. Lei Xu & Qian Liu & Bin Li & Chen Ma, 2022. "Fintech business and firm access to bank loans," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4381-4421, December.
    14. Wang, Yichen & Hu, Jun & Chen, Jia, 2023. "Does Fintech facilitate cross-border M&As? Evidence from Chinese A-share listed firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    15. Hong, Liu & Nikbakht, Ehsan & Zhou, Tianpeng, 2023. "Does product market competition affect the adoption of FinTech by non-financial firms?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    16. Bollaert, Helen & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2021. "Fintech and access to finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    17. Khattak, Mudeer Ahmed & Ali, Mohsin & Azmi, Wajahat & Rizvi, Syed Aun R., 2023. "Digital transformation, diversification and stability: What do we know about banks?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 122-132.
    18. Zhang, Xuan & Zhao, Yang & Yao, Xiao, 2022. "Forecasting corporate default risk in China," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1054-1070.
    19. Liu, Jiangtao & Zhang, Yi & Kuang, Jia, 2023. "Fintech development and green innovation: Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    20. Ahsan Habib & Mabel D' Costa & Hedy Jiaying Huang & Md. Borhan Uddin Bhuiyan & Li Sun, 2020. "Determinants and consequences of financial distress: review of the empirical literature," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 1023-1075, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:72:y:2022:i:c:s0927538x22000269. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/pacfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.