Abstract: Government financial accounting supervision is an essential component of the national regulatory system, playing a critical role in maintaining market order and promoting the virtuous cycle of the market economy. However, the existing studies primarily focus on its ex-post error-correcting functions, while overlooking its potential preventive governance effects. Taking the random sampling of accounting information quality as a quasi-natural experiment, this study employs a multi-period difference-in-differences model to examine the preventive effect of government financial supervision on the contagion of commercial credit risk, based on A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2023. The results indicate that government fiscal and accounting supervision has a risk warning function and can effectively curb the contagion of trade credit risks. The mechanism analysis reveals that government financial supervision primarily blocks the contagion of commercial credit risks by revealing genuine financial risks of enterprises and correcting inefficient capital inflation behaviors. Further research has found that in state-owned firms, high-risk firms, enterprises in growth or decline periods, and firms with high concentration of suppliers or customers, government financial and accounting supervision has a stronger preventive effect on the transmission of commercial credit risks. Therefore, efforts should be made to further strengthen the implementation of governmental fiscal and accounting supervision, improve relevant governance measures, and fully leverage the role of the proactive government in correcting market failures and preventing and resolving systemic financial risks.

Key words: government financial and accounting supervision, commercial credit, risk contagion, accounting information quality, random inspection