**Appendix B The Introduction of the Index Proposed by Svirydzenka (2016) (FD1)**

We used the comprehensive index of financial development proposed by Svirydzenka [41], to be one of the proxy variables of financial development. This index is constructed using six sub-indexes, concerning the depth, access, and efficiency of financial institutions and markets. Table A2 presents the framework of this index.


**Table A2.** Framework of the index proposed by Svirydzenka [41] (FD1).

Source: IMF website [60].

Svirydzenka [41] divided financial development into two aspects: financial institutions and financial markets, then measuring each aspect from the angles of depth, access, and efficiency. By adopting a series of original indexes and methodologies, the author first computed two first-level sub-indexes, namely financial institutions and financial markets, then computed the aggregate index—financial development based on the first-level sub-indexes. Due to the length limitation, we do not further introduce the detailed construction process of this index, please refer to the original manuscript of Svirydzenka [41] for the complete information. The data of index can be extracted from the website of the IMF [60].
