Research on the impact of urban rail transit on the financing constraints of enterprises from the perspective of sustainability

Urban rail transit (URT) is closely related to the sustainable development of the city. In addition to the traffic improvements, it also brings social and economic benefits. From the perspective of sustainability, we discuss the effect of urban rail transit on financing constraints of companies listed on the China A-share stock market (A-share, common stocks issued by companies registered in China for domestic institutions, organizations or individuals to subscribe and trade in RMB) and further explore whether the level of financial development has an effect on the above relationship. The results show that: (1) Financing constraints are common among sample enterprises, and the later the opening year of urban rail transit, the greater the degree of financing constraints; (2) The development of urban rail transit is beneficial to alleviate the level of financing constraints of listed companies, and this mitigating effect mainly exists in the samples with high relevance to urban rail transit; (3) The higher the level of financial development, the smaller the degree of corporate financing constraints; (4) Financial development may influence the relationship between financing constraints and urban rail transit. With the improvement of the financial development level, the alleviating effect of urban rail transit on corporate financing constraints is less pronounced. This study gives some references to improve the financing constraints of listed companies and for promoting the sustainable development of urban rail transit.