论文标题：Does High Debt Ratio influence Chinese Firms' Performance? A Semiparametric Stochastic Frontier Approach with Zero Inefficiency

　　发表时间：2020.06 online

　　论文所有作者：Taining Wang, Jinjing Tian, Feng Yao

　　期刊名及所属分类：Empirical Economics(国际B)

　　英文摘要：The excessive debt ratio of Chinese firms has raised concerns over its impact on productive efficiency. We employ a firm-level dataset over 1998–2007 to investigate the role of debt in the firm's production frontier and technical efficiency. The impact of debt on frontier is decomposed into a stand-alone neutral effect and indirect non-neutral effects, which alter the output elasticity of production inputs. We estimate the effects through a semiparametric smooth coefficient stochastic frontier model. We allow a nonzero probability for the firms to be fully efficient and model it as a function of debt and technical progress represented by time. We observe that an increase in debt significantly shifts firms' frontier downward across different ownerships, regions, and industries. Foreign and private firms are more efficient, with their full efficiency probability increased by debt and technical progress. By contrast, state-owned enterprises and collective firms are much less efficient and their probability of being fully efficient does not increase with more debt. Furthermore, lower efficiency levels are concentrated in the central and western regions and in the mining and public utility industries.

　　中文摘要：中国企业过高的债务比率已经引起了人们对其影响生产效率的担忧。我们采用1998-2007年的企业层面数据集来调查债务在企业生产前沿和技术效率中的作用。债务对边界的影响被分解为独立的中性效应和间接的非中性效应，它们改变了生产投入的产出弹性。我们通过半参数光滑系数随机前沿模型估计了这些影响。我们允许公司完全高效的非零概率，并将其建模为债务和以时间为代表的技术进步的函数。我们观察到，债务的增加显著地改变了不同所有权、地区和行业的公司边界向下移动。外国非国大私营企业效率更高，债务和技术进步增加了它们的全部效率概率。相比之下，国有企业和集体企业的效率要低得多，它们完全高效的可能性不会随着债务的增加而增加。