A unique natural experiment in China – the city-level staggered introduction of admin-istrative approval centers (AAC) – reduces bank loan processing times by substantially speeding up the process of registering collateral without affecting credit decisions. Fol-lowing the establishment of an AAC, firms significantly reduce their cash holdings. State-owned enterprises are less affected. Cash flow sensitivity of cash holdings de-creases, as does the cash flow sensitivity of investment. The share of short-term debt increases, while inventory holdings and reliance on trade credit decrease. Defaults also decrease. These results suggest that timely access to credit has important implications on firms’ financial management.

The study indicates that under conditions of financial repression, a enterprise’s ESG performance significantly impacts the extent of its short-term debt used for long-term purposes. The mechanism test reveals that ESG performance mitigates the degree of short-term debt for long-term use through three pathways: enhancing information transparency, alleviating financing constraints, and curbing excessive investment. Further research suggests that the influence of ESG performance on the use of short-term debt for long-term purposes is more pronounced among private enterprises, high-pollution and high-energy-consuming enterprises, and enterprises in underdeveloped regions. This paper enriches the research on the relationship between ESG performance and corporate financing decisions.

Using data from Chinese A-share listed companies for the period 2007–2022,we investigates the impact of financialization on the long-term use of short-term debt (LUSD). Our findings reveal that increased financialization leads to a stronger issue of LUSD. Financialization squeezes long-term investments and equity financing levels of firms, thereby leading to LUSD. Moreover, the rise in financing costs and the degree of financing constraints intensify the effects of financialization on LUSD. The smaller the scale of the enterprise, the shorter its operating period, the higher its operational risk, the greater the promoting effect of financialization on LUSD.

The opening of high-speed rail (HSR) has significantly boosted business development in China. This study constructs a credit rationing model based on the theory of information asymmetry, and takes the opening of HSR as a quasi-natural experiment to empirically examine its impact on the investment and financing decisions among firms with different risk profiles using data from A-share listed companies from 2005 to 2019. The findings reveal that HSR opening significantly reduces corporate short-term loans while increasing long-term loans, without affecting loan costs. Lowriskfirms, as opposed to high-risk ones, experience notable reductions in short-term loan amounts and extended loan terms post-HSR opening. This is attributed to HSR mitigating information asymmetry between banks and firms. Additionally, HSR opening suppresses "short-term debt for long-term use" behaviors, thereby enhancing investment efficiency and quality. The study empirically supports the idea of leveraging HSR's economic stimulus in terms of firm investment and financing.