Abstract: A stable economic policy can provide a stable external environment for business operations, which is conducive to the improvement of total factor productivity. On the contrary, an uncertain economic policy environment may hinder the improvement of total factor productivity. Based on the data of China’s A-share listed companies from 2002 to 2016, the findings of this study indicate that the uncertainty of economic policy has a significant negative impact on the total factor productivity of enterprises. Further distinguishing the nature, scale and location of the property rights of the enterprise, it can be seen that the negative impact of the uncertainty of economic policy on the corporate total factor productivity only applies to non-state-owned enterprises, small-scale enterprises and enterprises located in the eastern region. In addition, for non-state-owned enterprises, small-scale enterprises and the enterprises in the eastern region, the more abundant their internal cash flow, the less negative impact of the uncertainty of economic policy on their TFP. This indicates that the financing constraints faced by enterprises are an important way for economic policy uncertainty to affect the total factor productivity of the enterprises. The abundant internal cash flow alleviates the external financing constraints faced by the enterprises, thus reducing the negative impact of uncertainty of economic policies on the TFP of the enterprises.

Key words: economic policy uncertainty; total factor productivity; financing constraints; internal cash flow