Abstract:

In the stage of China’s high-quality development, policy banks help cultivate new quality productivity with their institutional advantages. Based on the loan contract data of A-share listed firms from 2012 to 2022, this paper manually constructs firm-level policy bank credit indicators, examines their impact on firms’ total factor productivity, and explores the mechanism path, heterogeneity characteristics and structural allocation effects with the theory of new quality productivity. The study finds that policy bank credit significantly enhances firms’ total factor productivity. The mechanism test shows that this effect is mainly realized through technological innovation, green transformation and human capital structure upgrade, which fits the development path of new quality productivity. Heterogeneity analysis shows more pronounced positive impacts in commercial state-owned firms, technology-intensive private firms, highly competitive industries, and regions with relatively insufficient financial supply. Furthermore, policy banks’ implementation of industrial policy and regional coordination in structural allocation demonstrates stronger TFP promotion effects for firms with composite attributes such as manufacturing, high-tech, and green, and those in central and western regions. Therefore, the positioning of policy-based finance should be improved and its role in structural transformation, efficiency improvement and inclusive financial services should be strengthened.

Key words: policy bank credit, total factor productivity, new quality productive forces, credit structure, listed firms’ data