Abstract: Breaking public data monopolies, enabling seamless data flow, and releasing data dividends are crucial for constructing new national competitive advantages. This study employs a quasi-natural experiment utilizing the opening of China’s municipal government data to construct a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) model, assessing the impact of public data opening (PDO) on enterprise investment efficiency. Findings show that PDO significantly improves investment efficiency by mitigating both underinvestment and overinvestment inefficiencies, primarily through information empowerment and institutional empowerment mechanisms. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact of PDO on investment efficiency is influenced by enterprise characteristics, public data quality, and policy convergence. Further analysis identifies supply chain diffusion, investment scale, and regional spillover effects. Furthermore, PDO has been found to drive "productive" investment through "efficient" investment. In addition, it has been determined that PDO can promote total factor productivity of enterprises. This study contributes to theoretical understanding of PDO's role in market decision-making, highlights its positive externalities of PDO, and provides empirical evidence for optimizing resource allocation through data—reflecting the micro-level implementation of the nation's "developing data productivity" strategy. It also underscores the significance of government data infrastructure in fostering high-quality economic development.

Key words: Data Elements, Public Data, Investment Efficiency, Information Empowerment, Institutional Empowerment