Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Alternative Financing And Private Firm Performance, Daphne W. Yiu, Jun Su, Yuehua Xu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Why do private firms grow vibrantly in transition economies despite their limited access to formal financing? This study underscores the importance of informal financing in facilitating the growth of private firms in China. Drawing from the institutional economics argument, we posit that informal financing, in the form of underground financing and trade credit, substitutes formal financing in providing financial assistance and capital to private firms in China. We further posit that the effects of two kinds of informal financing vary across provinces with different levels of institutional development, and complement each other by supporting firms in different industries. We test …