Access to Credit and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from China
利用2006年中国邮政储蓄银行获准开展贷款业务这一准自然实验，发现信贷可得性显著促进创业，尤其在资本密集型行业和政府制度质量高的地区，并提升区域就业和企业存活率。
This study investigates the impact of improved access to credit on entrepreneurship. We exploit a quasi-natural experiment—namely, the Postal Savings Bank of China gaining official approval in 2006 to launch its own loan business—to establish causality. Findings reveal that improved access to credit has sizeable positive effects on entrepreneurship, especially in capital-intensive industries and areas with high levels of government institutional quality. Our results are robust to different specifications and alternative measures. Two plausible mechanisms driving our findings are financial constraints and increased demand. Estimations based on the individual-level data of self-employment further support our findings. We also find evidence that access to credit can increase regional employment and business survival rate.