Financial openness and firm exports: Evidence from Foreign-owned Banks in China
利用1996-2019年中国386家外资银行作为准自然实验，发现金融开放通过降低交易成本和生产支出、提高全要素生产率和信贷选择，使企业出口显著增加27.5%，其中小微企业和制造业受益最大。
Firms involved in international trade require an active and efficient financial market to facilitate their credit services and this is enhanced by financial openness. This study identified the impact of financial openness on Chinese firms' exports by 386 foreign-owned banks in China from 1996 to 2019 as a quasi-natural experiment. We constructed an estimation technique that combines the parallel trend test ( PTT ) and propensity score matching ( PSM ) with difference-in-difference ( DID ) estimators. We found that the gross and selection effects of financial openness are positive, and significantly increase firms' exports by 27.5%. Moreover, the impact differs for various firms: in terms of scale, small and micro firms benefit the most, and in terms of industry, manufacturing firms achieve the highest growth. Additionally, foreign-owned banks reduce firms' transaction costs and production expenditures, while increasing their total factor productivity ( TFP ) and credit alternatives.