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nformation on financing choices for firms across 18 different cities. One of the strengths of the survey is its coverage of small and medium enterprises. Hence, in addition to information on mercial financing sources such as bank finance, the survey also includes information on sources of financing that are associated with small firm finance such as trade credit and finance from informal sources such as a money lender or an informal bank or other financing such as trade credit and finance from informal sources such as a money lender or an informal bank or other financing sources. We find that 20% of firm financing in our sample is sourced from banks, which is parable to the use of bank financing in other developing countries such as India,Indonesia, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nigeria and the Russian Federation. However, the breakdown of nonbank financing sources shows greater differences. At the firm level, we find that bank financing is more prevalent with larger firms as We also find substantial firm level heterogeneity in financing patterns within China. The firms in the sample e from five different regions of China: Coastal, Southwest, Central, Northwest, and Northeast. The financing patterns show that the largest amount of bank financing is in the Coastal (%) and Southwest regions (26%)that have an investment climate that facilitates access to formal sources of external finance. We find that firms using formal bank finance grow faster than those financed from alternative channels. Our results hold even when we exclude firms registered as publicly traded panies or state owned 4 panies and look at a sample of just private sector firms, which are the fastest growing firms in the Chinese economy. We also find that firms financed by formal bank finance experience higher reinvestment rates, and productivity growth at least equal to that of firms financed from nonbank sources. This suggests that the growth financed by banks is not inefficient growth. The paper39。s growth. This paper takes a closer look at firm financing patterns and growth using a database of 2,400 Chinese firms. The authors find that a relatively small percentage of firms in the sample utilize formal bank finance with a much greater reliance on informal sources. However, the results suggest that despite its weaknesses, financing from the formal financial system is associated with faster firm growth, whereas fund raising from alternative channels is not. Using a selection model, the authors find no evidence that these results arise because of the selection of firms that have access to the formal financi