How does the Mixed-ownership Reform in China of State-owned Enterprises Affect the Corporate Risk-taking?

Abstract

The mixed ownership reform of state-owned enterprises in China offers a cherish opportunity for investigating the systematic relationship between mixed ownership and corporate risk-taking. Classified the mixed ownership into the diversification of categories and proportion of shares of the shareholders, we find that, based on the data of state-owned listed companies in China from 2008 to 2018 as sample, the degree of the mixed ownership and corporate risk-taking have positive relationships, that is, the more the diversification of proportion of shares of the shareholders, the higher the corporate risk-taking, while diversification of categories of shares, insignificantly associated with risk-taking, represents the low degree of ownership change needed to be deepened. When examining the moderating effects of types of state-owned firms, we observe that the mixed ownership plays a more positive and significant role in companies of central state-owned (which contrary to the local state-owned). Overall, our study contributes to the related literature by showing the influential role of mixed ownership on corporate risk management.