Firm-level panel data used in baseline regression, mechanism tests, and heterogeneity analysis.

Financial data are sourced from the CSMAR Database (https://data.csmar.com/) under institutional license. Prefectural-level macroeconomic data are accessible via the National Bureau of Statistics of China (https://www.stats.gov.cn/) under the “Regional Data” section. No additional ethical approval was required, as all data are anonymized and publicly available. (XLSX)