Using China’s panel data of 30 provinces during 1990–2003, this paper attempts to explore a possible link between financial development and China’s foreign trade. Four indicators are used to identify the role of financial development, which capture both the scale and efficiency feature of China’s regional financial development. The effects of other variables are also investigated, including traditional factor endowments, foreign direct investment, infrastructure and institutional quality, etc. In general, the estimation results suggest that financial development has a quantitatively large and robust effect on China’s manufactured goods trade, among which the financial efficiency indicators play a more significant role in promoting manufactured goods trade than those scale indicators. Sensitivity estimations show that the effect of financial development on China’s total trade essentially differs from that on trade in manufactured goods.

基于1990–2003年期间中国30个省份的面板数据, 检验了金融发展水平是否构成贸易比较优势的另一来源。 通过选取存贷款规模、 中长期贷款比重以及储蓄—投资转化率等4类金融 发展指标, 在传统要素禀赋、 外商直接投资、 制度性指标等影响因素的基础上, 重点考察金融发展对我国贸易总体规模与贸易结构转变的影响差异。 结果表明, 金融发展对中国工业制成品贸易起到了显著的促进作用; 与金融发展规模指标相比, 金融效率指标能更好地解释我国区域贸易结构的变化特征; 同时金融发展对中国总体贸易发展的影响作用与工业制成品贸易存在 差异。