Abstract: Taking the private listed companies with equity pledge risks from 2017 to 2019 as research samples, this paper theoretically analyzes the impact of state-owned capital participation in private enterprises on their access to local government bailouts and conducts an empirical test. The findings show that among the private enterprises with equity pledge risks, the private enterprises with state-owned capital participation have a greater probability and intensity to obtain local government bailouts; the greater the proportion of state-owned capital, the greater the probability and intensity of private enterprises to obtain bailouts. It is found through further research that the above-mentioned promotion effect is less obvious in the samples of private enterprises belonging to strategic emerging industries, or located in the regions with higher degree of marketization, or with non-local state-owned capital. In terms of the bailout effect, the equity pledge risks of the bailed out private enterprises have been alleviated, and the short-term market reaction is positive; the greater the bailout strength, the more significant the bailout effect. The above research results indicate that the state-owned capital participation can help private enterprises to obtain local government bailouts, thereby alleviating the equity pledge risks of private enterprises.

Key words: private enterprise, equity pledge, state-owned capital, local government bailout