중국 국유기업과 비국유기업의 단기자금 조달구조 결정요인: 금융경색 및 재무제약이 기업간신용 차입비중에 미치는 영향의 실증분석

This paper investigates the determinants of corporate financial policy by examining the structure of short-term debt financing in China. In particular, this paper examines how various aspects of firm-level financial constraints affect the trade credit use in short-term debt financing. In corporate debt financing, it is prevailing wisdom that the reliance on trade credit increases with the degree of financial constraints. There is a general notion that trade credit is considerably more expensive than short-term bank financing (revolving line) and trade credit is used more by the firms facing obstacles to obtain financing from banks and capital markets, such as NSOEs, SMEs, and the firms at early growth stage. This paper confirms these stylized facts and shows that trade credit is “inferior alternative” in short-term debt financing and is more prevailingly used by firms which are financially constrained. In the meanwhile, this paper finds that trade credit use is quite pro-cyclical in response to credit crunches in China, i.e., interest rate spread has negative effects on trade credit financing in the structure short-term corporate debts. Moreover, our paper provides evidence that the firms located in the provinces with high economic growth tend to maintain high trade credit financing for active business operations.