Financial Intermediation and Economic Growth in China: New Evidence from Panel Data

In this article, we investigate the relationship between financial intermediation and economic growth in China by employing system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimators for dynamic panel data from twenty-eight Chinese provinces over the period 1978-2008. Our empirical results show that various measures of financial development are generally associated with economic growth. More specifically, the size and depth of the financial sector significantly influence economic growth. However, household saving is found to have a negative, but insignificant, effect on economic growth. Finally, we find that although several control variables show the expected signs, they are not always statistically significant. Human capital, openness to trade, and inflation positively influence economic growth.