区块链抑制地方政府隐性债务扩张了吗？

Does Blockchain Restrain the Expansion of Local Governments' Implicit Debt?

中文关键词:  地方政府  隐性债务  区块链  财政能力  债务治理能力  数字技术

英文关键词:local governments  implicit debt  blockchain  fiscal capacity  debt governance ability  digital technology

中文摘要:

      当前,我国地方政府隐性债务规模不断积聚,成为防范和化解系统性金融风险的重要挑战。数字经济时代,积极利用数字技术“化存量、控增量”已成为隐性债务治理中极具战略意义的论题。基于区块链视角,以2015—2020年我国30个省份为样本,实证分析了区块链技术对地方政府隐性债务规模扩张的影响及其作用机制。研究发现:区块链技术的发展显著抑制了我国地方政府隐性债务规模的扩张。区块链技术主要通过提升地方政府债务治理能力,抑制了地方政府隐性债务规模的扩张。异质性检验发现,在内陆地区及数字金融发展相对滞后的地区,地方政府更容易发挥后发优势,区块链技术对地方政府隐性债务规模扩张的抑制效果更加显著。鉴于区块链在促进地方政府治理创新、提升债务治理能力等方面的积极作用,地方政府应当充分借助科技赋能,全面提升公共治理能力。

英文摘要:

      The implicit debt of local governments in China has been rising, which poses a great challenge to systemic financial risk control in China. In the digital economy era, using the digital technology to “reduce the stock and control the increment” has become an important topic in implicit debt management. From the perspective of blockchain, this paper takes 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government in China from 2015 to 2020 as samples, and studies the effect of blockchain technology on the expansion of local governments' implicit debt and its mechanism. Empirical results show that first, blockchain development significantly restrains the expansion of local governments' implicit debt. Second, blockchain technology restrains the expansion of local governments' implicit debt by improving their debt governance ability. Third, the heterogeneity test shows that in inland regions with relatively backward digital finance, local governments are more likely to give play to their latecomer advantages, and blockchain technology has a more significant inhibition effect on the expansion of local governments' implicit debt. Therefore, local governments should make full use of blockchain technology to support debt governance and restrain the expansion of implicit debt. 