Abstract:    Breaking public data monopoly, enabling seamless data flow, and releasing data dividends are crucial for constructing new national competitive advantages. This study employed 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. The findings showed that PDO significantly improves investment efficiency by mitigating both underinvestment and overinvestment inefficiencies, primarily through information empowerment and institutional empowerment mechanisms. The heterogeneity analysis revealed that the impact of PDO on investment efficiency is influenced by enterprise characteristics, public data quality, and policy convergence. Further analysis identified 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 will contribute to the theoretical understanding of PDO′s role in market decision-making, highlight its positive externalities of PDO, and provide empirical evidence for optimizing resource allocation through data—reflecting the micro-level implementation of the nation′s "developing data productivity" strategy. It will also underscore the significance of government data infrastructure in fostering high-quality economic development.

Key words: data element, public data, investment efficiency, information empowerment, institutional empowerment