Total debt in the People’s Republic of China has increased significantly in recent years, mostly on account of nonfinancial corporate debt. Earning and the financial performance of corporate firms have weakened, and so has the asset quality of the financial sector. This paper assesses the...

This paper examines the relationship between corporate debt and firm productivity. We add to the existing literature by investigating the contingency effect of institutional quality in the corporate debt-productivity nexus. Using data for 2,084 Chinese listed firms, we find that corporate debt...