The Impact of Data Element Marketization on Corporate Information Disclosure Quality: A Quasi-natural Experiment Based on the Establishment of Data Trading Platforms

As a core initiative for the marketization of data elements, the establishment of data trading platforms exerts an optimizing effect on the information environment of capital markets, which deserves systematic examination and in-depth analysis. Taking A-share listed companies on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2007 to 2022 as research samples, this paper investigates the impacts of the launch of data trading platforms on corporate information disclosure quality. The results show that the establishment of data trading platforms significantly improves corporate information disclosure quality, and this conclusion remains valid after a battery of robustness tests. Heterogeneity tests reveal a substitution effect between data trading platforms and high-quality external auditing as well as analyst coverage from the perspective of external supervision, and the governance effect is more pronounced for firms audited by non-Big Four accounting firms and firms with low analyst coverage. From the perspective of proprietary costs of information disclosure, the governance effect of data trading platforms is concentrated in firms with fierce market competition and high R&D intensity. In terms of corporate intrinsic attributes, data trading platforms deliver a more prominent improvement in information disclosure quality for firms with weak digital foundations. The economic consequence test demonstrates that data trading platforms can improve corporate information disclosure quality, optimize corporate information environment, alleviate corporate financing constraints, and further boost the quantity and quality of corporate technological innovation, thereby promoting high-quality development of enterprises. This research not only identifies the heterogeneous boundary conditions for the impact of data trading platforms on corporate information disclosure quality, but also verifies their positive functions in optimizing capital market ecology and empowering internal corporate governance. It also provides empirical evidence and policy implications for the coordinated advancement of data element market construction and high-quality development of capital markets in China.