Three features of China?s trade patterns suggest that elements beyond factor abundance explain its export performance. The high penetration in world markets of labour-intensive products has been accompanied by: (i) a high share in exports of productivity-advanced foreign-owned enterprises...

We examine the role of firms' government connections, defined by government intervention in CEO appointment and the status of state ownership, in determining the severity of financial constraints faced by Chinese firms. We demonstrate that government connections are associated with substantially...

"New Tigers" (including city commercial banks) outperform state-owned commercial banks burdened with non-performing loans from unprofitable state-owned enterprises. We study whether this is due solely to superior corporate governance (multiple shareholders versus total government ownership) or...