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Review of Finance Vol. 21 No. 4 2017

Financial Development and Patterns of Industrial Specialization: Evidence from China

Qing He1; Chang Xue2; Chenqi Zhu3

1 1School of Finance & China Financial Policy Research Center, Renmin University of China · 2 2Department of Economics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong · 3 3Stern School of Business, New York University

Abstract

This article investigates the influence of financial development on patterns of industrial specialization across China’s regions. We find that industrial sectors reliant on access to external finance tend to concentrate in regions with well-developed financial markets. Both foreign direct investment (FDI) and alternative financing channels are shown to play significant roles in shaping patterns of industrial specialization in China. In contrast, proxies for formal financial markets, for example, the banking system and capital markets, have few effects on regional industrial agglomeration. This result remains robust to instrumental variable estimation, alternative model specifications, and controlling for other traditional determinants of regional specialization.

DOI
10.1093/rof/rfw024
Volume
21
Issue
4
Pages
1593-1638
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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