From a dataset of Chinese firms in the 2005-07 period, we find that government investment boosted the performance of zombie firms and crowded out the growth of private firms; and that the higher the concentration of state banks, and of SOEs, the more conducive is the environment for nurturing...

Chinese banks suffer from serious financial fragility manifested by high proportions of non-performing loans and low capital-adequacy ratios. A key policy introduced recently by the Chinese government to reduce financial risks is the establishment of four asset management companies (AMCs) for...