Corporate Over-Indebtedness and the Development of New Productivity-Theoretical Mechanisms and Empirical Evidence

New-quality productive forces are of great significance to China's high-quality development. This study selects A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen, China from 2011 to 2022 as research samples, and empirically explores the impact paths and mechanisms of corporate excessive leverage on new-quality productive forces. The results show that: First, corporate excessive leverage significantly inhibits the development of new-quality productive forces; second, mechanism tests indicate that corporate excessive leverage suppresses the development of new-quality productive forces through mechanisms such as reducing corporate innovation and widening internal pay gaps, and a series of robustness tests confirm that the aforementioned inhibitory mechanisms still hold. The research conclusions provide theoretical support and practical reference for deepening the understanding of the economic consequences of deleveraging policies and for the government to formulate policies to accelerate the formation of new-quality productive forces.