The case of China seems to present a counterexample to the literature on economic institutions as its private enterprises have achieved spectacular growth despite poor protection of private properties and difficulties in accessing external finance. In this study, we address this apparent puzzle...

Property rights protection has been found to promote economic growth at the macro level, and affect the incentive for investment at the micro level. What is not clear is whether and how property rights protection affects a firm's allocation of investment across industries for a given size of...

We use administrative registration records with information on the owners of all Chinese firms to document their connections through equity investments. We show that the largest private owners have direct equity ties with state owners, the next largest private owners have equity ties with...