Abstract: Compared with the real economy, China’s financial sector has experienced relatively rapid growth. A deeper investigation into this phenomenon is both timely and essential under the national strategic goal of "building a strong financial nation." Grounded in typical empirical facts and drawing on the dual-mode theory of finance, this paper proposes a hypothesis of rapid financial sector growth to explain the moderate financialization of real-economy enterprises and high-quality regional economic development in China. Using macro- and micro-level data from 2010 to 2022, we examine the impact of moderate corporate financialization on high-quality economic development. Our findings indicate that it is moderate, rather than excessive, financialization that truly promotes high-quality development—a conclusion that holds after a series of robustness checks and endogeneity discussions. Mechanism analysis reveals that the moderate financialization of real-economy enterprises drives high-quality development through the rapid growth of the financial sector. Heterogeneity analysis shows that while "strong regulation" of the financial sector weakens the positive micro-level effects of moderate financialization, it yields positive outcomes for economic development at the macro level. Accordingly, this paper proposes guiding micro-level enterprises toward moderate financialization, fostering a rational perspective on the financial sector’s rapid growth, and strengthening macroprudential management. These recommendations provide a theoretical foundation for leveraging finance’s "lifeblood" function in serving the real economy.

Key words: rapid growth of the financial sector, moderate financialization, high-quality economic development, dual-mode theory of finance, sequential g—estimation