Local government debt and corporate stock liquidity: Evidence from China

Abstract

The growing prominence of government debt has emerged as a critical concern in contemporary economic scholarship and policy discourse. Drawing on a comprehensive dataset of Chinese A-share listed firms over the period 2011–2019, this study explores the influence of local government debt on corporate stock liquidity. Our empirical analysis reveals that the expansion of local government debt significantly reduces the stock liquidity of local firms, with robustness checks confirming this causal relationship. One plausible explanation is that the expansion of local government debt increases the information opacity of local firms, leading to a decrease in the liquidity of their stocks. The adverse stock liquidity impact of local government debt expansion is particularly pronounced among private firms, small firms, and firms exhibiting greater financing constraints. In contrast, the negative effect of local government debt on firms' stock liquidity is significantly weakened when firms have better quality internal control or more effective external governance mechanisms such as media and auditors' supervision. Our study contributes firm-level evidence of the adverse effects of local government debt expansion from the perspective of stock liquidity and has policy implications for controlling government debt.