Open Government Data and Household Entrepreneurship in China

Abstract

In an era where digital governance plays an increasingly vital role in economic development, open government data (OGD) has emerged as a key policy tool to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. However, evidence on how OGD affects household-level entrepreneurial decisions—particularly in developing economies with large informal sectors—remains scarce. This study investigates the impact of OGD on household entrepreneurship in China, leveraging quasi-natural experimental variations in provincial OGD policies and micro-level data from the China Family Panel Studies (2010–2022). We establish that OGD significantly boosts household entrepreneurship through multiple mechanisms, including fostering digital industry agglomeration, improving information matching, easing credit constraints and building government trust. The overall effect is a 2.1% increase in entrepreneurial probability, yet this masks significant disparities. The benefits are concentrated in opportunity-driven ventures and among high-income, risk-tolerant households, while lower-income families benefit less—not simply due to poverty, but because they lack the digital skills to transform open data into entrepreneurial opportunities. These findings highlight OGD's role not just as a technical tool but as an institutional reform, whose inclusive impact depends on addressing underlying digital, financial and skills-based divides.