Can State Ownership Facilitate Trade Credit Financing?

This paper investigates the effect of state ownership on trade credit financing among Chinese firms. We find that besides market power, state ownership also has a significantly positive effect on the use of trade credit, and thus can serve as a substitute of market power to facilitate trade credit financing. Further analysis indicates that in areas with lower degree of financial market development, the positive effect of state ownership on the trade credit financing is stronger, while the positive effect of market power is weaker. Our study shows that under the background of China's transitional economy, state ownership not only has a positive effect on the access to formal financing from financial intermediaries, but also has an implicit guarantee effect on the access to trade credit financing.