Chicken or egg: financial development and economic growth in China, 1992-2004

This paper contributes to the empirical finance-growth literature by examining the relationship between financial depth, banking sector development, stock market development and economic growth in China. After an extensive survey on recent financial reforms in China, we apply Granger (non-)causality tests for non-stationary variables to examine long-run and short-run causality between economic growth and financial development. We find positive relationships between financial depth, banking sector development and growth. However, stock market development does not seem to have a positive effect on long-run economic growth.