The economic value of open government data: Micro evidence from corporate investment
Artikel-Kategorie: Research Papers
Online veröffentlicht: 04. Sept. 2025
Eingereicht: 02. Apr. 2025
Akzeptiert: 18. Aug. 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2025-0047
Schlüsselwörter
© 2025 Yumei Fu et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Purpose
This research endeavors to investigate the impact of open government data on corporate investment, emphasizing the exploration of underlying mechanisms, heterogeneous effects, and implications for investment efficiency. Utilizing the implementation of government data open platforms as a quasi-natural experiment, this study aims to elucidate how public data transparency affects firms’ investment decisions and resource allocation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a staggered Difference-in-Differences (DID) model as its principal methodological framework. This approach facilitates causal inference by examining the differential changes in corporate investment between firms influenced by the data openness policy and those that remain unaffected over time.
Findings
The findings indicate that open government data substantially enhance corporate investment levels. A mechanistic analysis identifies three principal channels through which this effect is mediated: alleviation of overall financing constraints, reduction of financing costs, and expansion of the financing scale. A heterogeneity analysis suggests that the positive impact is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises, high-tech firms, and companies experiencing elevated levels of macroeconomic uncertainty. Moreover, the transparency of government data improves the responsiveness of corporate investment to emerging opportunities, thereby augmenting the overall efficiency of corporate investment.
Research limitations
This study primarily examined the influence of government data transparency on corporate investment, while not accounting for the effects of macroeconomic variability, internal corporate governance frameworks, and industry-specific regulatory policies.
Practical implications
Government open data platforms can effectively boost corporate investment and resource allocation. Policymakers should focus on improving the quality and accessibility of these data, especially in areas with high economic uncertainty, to support business investments. Firms, particularly high-tech and financially constrained firms, can use open data to ease capital limitations and find investment opportunities. Regulators should promote data transparency to enhance economic vitality through efficient corporate investments.
Originality/value
This study enhances the existing literature by offering causal evidence of the impact of open government data on corporate investment, a subject that has been relatively underexplored empirically. By employing a quasi-natural experiment centered on the implementation of government data platforms, this study adopts a robust methodological approach to address endogeneity issues, thereby advancing methodological rigor in investigations of public data governance and corporate behavior.