Credit Environment,Institution Dependence and Industry Comparative Advantages

Abstract

The formal and informal institutions play a very important role in the China's economic restructuring and industrial upgrading,especially during this economic transition period.The existing literature lacks the research on the heterogeneity influence of informal institutions on the industries with different institutional dependence. Mainly based on micro data from Chinese industrial enterprises database,this paper uses industry asset specificity and product complexity to measure institutional dependence,calculates comparative advantages from two perspectives of TFP and export,and analyzes the heterogeneous impact of credit environment on industry comparative advantages. It finds that the improvement of credit environment plays a stronger role in promoting comparative advantages of industries with high-level institutional dependence,and it is robust strongly. And after the control of the effect of formal institutions,this conclusions still exist,namely besides formal institutions,credit environment can play an independent role in the guarantee of successful trading. Furthermore,it analyzes the relationship between the effects of credit environment as an informal institution and formal institutions on industry comparative advantages,and shows a significantly complementary relationship between these two,indicating the effects of these two on industry comparative advantages are mutually strengthened. Therefore,with the improvement of credit environment,industries with high-level institutional dependence have more comparative advantages and development potential,and will become the economic growth momentum in future China.