The Effect of the China Connect

51 Pages Posted: 22 Jan 2021

See all articles by Chang Ma

Chang Ma

Fudan University

John H. Rogers

Fudan University - Fanhai International School of Finance (FISF)

Sili Zhou

University of Macau - Faculty of Business Administration

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: February 3, 2020

Abstract

We document the effect on Chinese firms of the Shanghai (Shenzhen)-Hong Kong Stock Connect. The Connect was an important capital account liberalization introduced in the mid-2010s. It created a channel for cross-border equity investments into a selected set of Chinese stocks while China’s overall capital controls policy remained in place. Using a difference-in-difference approach, and with careful attention to sample selection issues, we find that mainland Chinese firm-level investment is negatively affected by contractionary U.S. monetary policy shocks and that firms in the Connect are more adversely affected than those outside of it. These effects are stronger for firms whose stock return has a higher covariance with the world market return and for firms relying more on external financing. We also find that firms in the Connect enjoy lower financing costs, invest more, and have higher profitability than unconnected firms. We discuss the implications of our results for the debate on capital controls and independence of Chinese monetary policy.

JEL Classification: F38, E40, E52, G15

Suggested Citation

Ma, Chang and Rogers, John H. and Zhou, Sili, The Effect of the China Connect (February 3, 2020). BOFIT Discussion Paper No. 1/2020, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3764756 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3764756

Chang Ma (Contact Author)

Fudan University ( email )

Beijing West District Baiyun Load 10th
Shanghai, 100045
China

John H. Rogers

Fudan University - Fanhai International School of Finance (FISF) ( email )

220 Handan Road
Shanghai, 200433
China

Sili Zhou

University of Macau - Faculty of Business Administration ( email )

Macau

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