Financial development, productivity, and high-quality development of the marine economy

Abstract

This study explores how to effectively improve the productivity of the marine industry from a financial support perspective and to find new ideas for the high-quality development of the marine economy. The authors systematically sort out the real-life logic of financial influence on marine productivity improvement and empirically test it using panel data from 11 coastal regions in China from 2006 to 2016. The findings show that the level of financial development significantly contributes to increased productivity in the marine industry, and this finding holds true after accounting for potential endogeneity issues and a series of robustness tests. Furthermore, the regional heterogeneity analysis shows that the financial development of the eastern and southern marine economic circles has a more significant positive impact on the improvement of industrial efficiency. Further research also finds that the depth, efficiency, and environment of financial development have a positive effect on the efficiency of the industry, mainly in the current coastal areas, and that the breadth of financial development has not yet had an effect. The main reason for this is that the current financial coverage of the marine industry cannot match the financial needs of industrial development. Accordingly, the authors recommend enhancing financial support’s role in improving marine industry efficiency by establishing a financing system for marine-related industries and encouraging innovation in marine-related financial products to achieve high-quality development of the marine economy.