Financial dependence and international trade [Dataset]

Does financial development translate into a comparative advantage in industries that use more external finance? We use industry-level data on firms’ dependence on external finance for 36 industries and 56 countries to examine this question. We show that countries with better-developed financial systems have higher export shares and trade balances in industries that use more external finance. These results are robust to the use of alternative measures of external dependence and financial development and are not due to reverse causality or simultaneity bias.

金融发展能否转化为对外部融资（external finance）依赖度更高行业的比较优势（comparative advantage）？我们采用覆盖56个国家、36个行业的企业外部融资依赖度行业级数据，对该问题开展实证检验。研究结果表明，金融体系发展更为完善的国家，在外部融资依赖度更高的行业中拥有更高的出口份额与贸易收支余额。上述结论在更换外部融资依赖度与金融发展的替代衡量指标后依然稳健，且不受反向因果或联立性偏误（simultaneity bias）的影响。