Credit Allocation under Economic Stimulus: Evidence from China

We study credit allocation across firms and its real effects during China?s economic stimulus plan of 2009-2010. We match confidential loan-level data from the 19 largest Chinese banks with firm-level data on manufacturing firms. We find that the stimulus-driven credit expansion disproportionately favored state-owned firms and firms with lower marginal product of capital, reversing the process of capital reallocation towards private firms that characterized China high growth before 2008. We rationalize these findings in a dynamic model with financial frictions. In normal times, growth is driven by gradual reallocation of resources from low to high productivity firms. Recessions can slow down or even reverse this process due to implicit government bailout favoring state-connected firms. Credit expansion further amplifies this effect.