Financial Openness and Firm Exports : Evidence from Foreign-Owned Banks in China

Firms involved in international trade require an active and efficient financial market to facilitate their credit services, which are enhanced by financial openness. In this study, we identify the impact of financial openness on the exports of Chinese firms by 386 foreign-owned banks in China from 1996 to 2019 as a quasi-natural experiment. We construct an estimation technique that combines parallel trend test ( PTT ) and propensity score matching ( PSM ) with difference-in-difference ( DID ) estimators. We found that both the gross and selection effects of financial openness are positive and significantly increase firms’ exports by 21.49%. Moreover, the impact differs for various firms: In terms of scale, small and micro firms benefit the most; in terms of industry, manufacturing firms achieve the greatest growth. Additionally, foreign-owned banks decrease firms' transaction costs and production expenditures, while increasing their total factor productivity ( TFP ) and credit alternatives.JEL classification: G21, F39, H32