High-speed railway and shadow banking: evidence from finance leases

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper empirically investigates the effect of improved transportation infrastructure on finance leases, a representative form of China’s shadow banking sector, using a sample of Chinese listed companies. We find robust evidence that there is a significant decline in firms’ finance leases after the opening of the high-speed railway (HSR). Furthermore, HSR brings more favourable contract terms of leasing, including larger financing size, longer maturity, and lower cost. The heterogeneity analysis shows that HSR mainly reduces the costly nonbank-affiliated leases, and finance leases are reduced primarily in state-owned enterprises.