Using panel data for Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2024, this paper examines whether RMB internationalization is associated with firms’ outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and explores the channels through which this relationship may operate. The paper argues that RMB internationalization reduces currency-conversion frictions and exchange-rate exposure, improves the cross-border financing environment, and strengthens firms’ incentives to search for overseas markets when domestic competition intensifies. After controlling for firm fixed effects, city fixed effects, firm characteristics, and macroeconomic conditions, the RMB Internationalization Index (RII) is positively and significantly associated with firm-level OFDI. Additional evidence shows that RMB internationalization increases the probability that firms hold RMB-denominated OFDI stock, and that firms with prior RMB-denominated OFDI experience respond more strongly to improvements in RMB internationalization. The analysis also clarifies the treatment of year fixed effects, discusses potential time-trend bias and reverse causality, and interprets the results as conditional empirical evidence rather than definitive causal proof. The findings suggest that RMB internationalization is not only a macro-level monetary process but also an institutional condition that shapes micro-level corporate globalization decisions.

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