Resource misallocation widely exists in developing countries and has caused serious efficiency loss. For a long time, being trapped in the inefficient system of China’s financial market, Chinese firms have not only widespread financing difficulties, but also financial ownership discrimination among firms with different types of ownership. To improve the efficiency of social capital allocation and get rid of the inefficient credit system, after the reform and opening up, the Chinese government has carried out a series of government-led banking reforms. One of the key components is banking deregulation, encouraging the development of joint-stock commercial banks and city commercial banks except the four major state-owned commercial banks. Taking the development of joint-stock commercial banks as the starting point, this paper studies the impact of local financial development brought about by the structural reform of banks on the level of social resource allocation, and discusses whether financial ownership discrimination has been effectively corrected as a result. Based on China Annual Survey of Industrial Firms(ASIF) from 2000 to 2006, and city-level financial development data from the website of CBRC(China Banking Regulatory Commission), this paper uses the proportion of joint-stock commercial banks’ branches as a proxy for banking deregulation and the micro-information of firms to construct the markup dispersion as a proxy for misallocation, to discuss the potential financial " ownership discrimination” through ownership classification, and identify the entry and exit behavior of firms to reflect the market selection effect. By examining the resource allocation effect of bank diversification and its mechanism, this paper can not only supplement the existing research on China’s financial marketization, but also provide a direct evaluation of the effect of China’s financial development and important reference and guidance for the formulation of policies. This paper shows that the development of joint-stock commercial banks can correct the misallocation of resources in China, and this corrective effect is mainly reflected in the development of commercial banks, which improves the resource misallocation within private firm group by stimulating the market selection effect. Also, this paper shows that the above conclusions are strengthened in export-oriented industries, regions with lower degree of marketization and more intense financial competition. However, the development of joint-stock commercial banks aggravates the resource misallocation within the state-owned firm group and at the same time fails to significantly reduce the resource misallocation between private firms, state-owned firms and foreign firms. Therefore, it may still be powerless against " ownership discrimination”. To sum up, this paper attempts to make marginal contributions from the following three points: First, the existing researches on the impact of banking deregulation or local financial development either focus on local economic growth and export, or on micro-firm growth, or on changes in banks’ internal behaviors, but do not pay attention to its overall effect on resource allocation. The research in this paper is not only an important supplement to the existing literature, but also has more direct reference value for policy formulation from the perspective of resource allocation. Second, this paper not only pays attention to the influence of banking structural reform on resource allocation, but also deeply digs the theoretical mechanism behind the phenomenon, that is, to reduce the overall level of resource misallocation by promoting the optimal allocation of resources within private firm group. Through detailed analyses, this paper further discusses the problem of financial " ownership discrimination”, which is also a useful supplement to the existing financial development, financing constraints and other related literature. Third, from the perspective of resource allocation, we have provided direct empirical evidence for the concern in Ferri(2009) through the proof of the theoretical mechanism. Our research implies that the key to realizing the optimal resource allocation through China’s financial reform lies on the one hand in further deepening the reform of large state-owned commercial banks, and on the other hand in promoting the reform of state-owned firms and realizing the rational distribution of state-owned capital.
/ Journals / Journal of Finance and Economics
Journal of Finance and Economics
LiuYuanchun, Editor-in-Chief
ZhengChunrong, Vice Executive Editor-in-Chief
YaoLan BaoXiaohua HuangJun, Vice Editor-in-Chief
Do China’s Banking Deregulations Promote the Allocation of Resources?
Journal of Finance and Economics Vol. 45, Issue 04, pp. 83 - 95 (2019) DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.jfe.2019.04.007
Summary
References
Summary
[1] Cai W X, Zeng C. Market competition, property right reform and commercial bank loan behavior transformation[J]. Journal of Financial Research, 2012, (2): 73-87. (In Chinese)
[2] Dai J, Zhang J H. Financial ownership discrimination, ownership structure and innovation output-evidence from China’s regional industrial sector[J]. Journal of Financial Research, 2013, (5): 86-98. (In Chinese)
[3] Fang F, Cai W X. Banking competition and enterprise growth: Empirical evidence from industrial enterprises[J]. Management World, 2016, (7): 63-75. (In Chinese)
[4] Jia C X, Xia W Y, Huang Z K. The competition between bank branches and between state-owned banks and their influence on economic growth[J]. Management World, 2008, (2): 7-14. (In Chinese)
[5] Jiang W, Zhang L P. Misallocation effect of subsidies disparity: Based on TFP dispersion approach[J]. China Industrial Economics, 2015, (2): 31-43. (In Chinese)
[6] Liu K R, Huang J Z. Renminbi exchange rate, pricing to market and misallocation[J]. Economic Research Journal, 2016, (12): 18-31. (In Chinese)
[7] Ma G R, Li L X. Financial contract efficiency, enterprise exit and resource misplacement[J]. The Journal of World Economy, 2014, (10): 77-103 (In Chinese).
[8] Qian X F, Pan Y, Mao H T. Export tax rebate, enterprise cost addition and resource misplacement[J]. The Journal of World Economy, 2015, (8): 80-106. (In Chinese)
[9] Qian X F, Mao H T, Xu X C. A new framework for estimating China’s trade gains: From the perspective of resource misallocation arising from a double policy bias[J]. Social Sciences in China, 2016, (12): 83-108. (In Chinese)
[10] Shen G J. Comparative advantages and zombie firms: A study based on new structural economics[J]. Management World, 2016, (12): 13-24. (In Chinese)
[11] Yu C, Yang Y H. Bank competition, ownership discrimination and improved enterprise productivity[J]. Economic Science, 2016, (2): 81-92. (In Chinese)
[12] Yu Z L, Tong J D. Ownership, export behavior and enterprise financing constraints[J]. The Journal of World Economy, 2016, (3): 26-48. (In Chinese)
[13] Zhang J, Zheng W P, Xin F. Bank deregulation, structural competition and enterprises’ innovation[J].China Industrial Economics, 2017, (10): 118-136. (In Chinese)
[14] Zhang T H, Zhang S H. Bias policy, resource allocation and enterprises’ innovation[J]. Economic Research Journal, 2016, (2): 126-139. (In Chinese)
[15] Allen F, Qian J, Qian M J. Law, finance, and economic growth in China[J]. Journal of Financial Economics, 2005, 77(1): 57-116. DOI:10.1016/j.jfineco.2004.06.010
[16] Brandt L, Van Biesebroeck J, Zhang Y F. Creative accounting or creative destruction? Firm-level productivity growth in Chinese manufacturing[J]. Journal of Development Economics, 2012, 97(2): 339-351. DOI:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2011.02.002
[17] Chen Z, Poncet S, Xiong R X. Local financial development and constraints on private firms’ exports: Evidence from city commercial banks in China[R]. CEPII Working Paper, 2016.
[18] Dai M, Xu J W. Firm-specific exchange rate shocks and employment adjustment: Evidence from China[J]. Journal of International Economics, 2017, 108: 54-66. DOI:10.1016/j.jinteco.2017.05.004
[19] De Loecker J, Warzynski F. Markups and firm-level export status[J]. The American Economic Review, 2012, 102(6): 2437-2471. DOI:10.1257/aer.102.6.2437
[20] Ferri G. Are new tigers supplanting old mammoths in China’s banking system? Evidence from a sample of city commercial banks[J]. Journal of Banking & Finance, 2009, 33(1): 131-140.
[21] Firth M, Lin C, Liu P, et al. Inside the black box: Bank credit allocation in China’s private sector[J]. Journal of Banking & Finance, 2009, 33(6): 1144-1155.
[22] Fisman R, Svensson J. Are corruption and taxation really harmful to growth? Firm level evidence[J]. Journal of Development Economics, 2007, 83(1): 63-75. DOI:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2005.09.009
[23] Guariglia A, Poncet S. Could financial distortions be no impediment to economic growth after all? Evidence from China[J]. Journal of Comparative Economics, 2008, 36(4): 633-657. DOI:10.1016/j.jce.2007.12.003
[24] Harrison A E, McMillan M S. Does direct foreign investment affect domestic credit constraints?[J]. Journal of International Economics, 2003, 61(1): 73-100. DOI:10.1016/S0022-1996(02)00078-8
[25] Huang Y S. Selling China[M]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
[26] Lai T K, Qian Z J, Wang L H. WTO accession, foreign bank entry, and the productivity of Chinese manufacturing firms[J]. Journal of Comparative Economics, 2016, 44(2): 326-342. DOI:10.1016/j.jce.2015.06.003
[27] Lerner A P. The concept of monopoly and the measurement of monopoly power[J]. The Review of Economic Studies, 1934, 1(3): 157-175. DOI:10.2307/2967480
[28] Lewbel A. Constructing instruments for regressions with measurement error when no additional data are available, with an application to patents and R&D[J]. Econometrica, 1997, 65(5): 1201-1213. DOI:10.2307/2171884
[29] Lu Y, Yu L H. Trade liberalization and markup dispersion: Evidence from China’s WTO accession[J]. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2015, 7(4): 221-253. DOI:10.1257/app.20140350
[30] Manova K, Wei S J, Zhang Z W. Firm exports and multinational activity under credit constraints[J]. Review of Economics and Statistics, 2015, 97(3): 574-588. DOI:10.1162/REST_a_00480
[31] Pavcnik N. Trade liberalization, exit, and productivity improvements: Evidence from Chilean plants[J]. The Review of Economic Studies, 2002, 69(1): 245-276. DOI:10.1111/1467-937X.00205
[32] Poncet S, Steingress W, Vandenbussche H. Financial constraints in China: Firm-level evidence[J]. China Economic Review, 2010, 21(3): 411-422. DOI:10.1016/j.chieco.2010.03.001
[33] Song Z, Storesletten K, Zilibotti F. Growing like China[J]. The American Economic Review, 2011, 101(1): 196-233. DOI:10.1257/aer.101.1.196
[34] Wang C. Crony banking and local growth in China[R]. FIOT Discussion Paper, 2017.
Cite this article
He Huanlang, Tie Ying, Liu Qiren. Do China’s Banking Deregulations Promote the Allocation of Resources?[J]. Journal of Finance and Economics, 2019, 45(4): 83-95.
Export Citations as:
For
ISSUE COVER
RELATED ARTICLES