Pub Date : 2025-02-15DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102711
Yu-Lun Chen , J. Jimmy Yang
The inclusion of Chinese renminbi in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) lowers weightings of the other SDR currencies (EUR, JPY, and GBP) in the basket. Conventional wisdom suggests no material impact on those currencies. However, we find that, after the SDR adjustment, the liquidity of down-weighted currencies declines significantly. The SDR adjustment increases the FX liquidity commonality and enhances the liquidity spillover and risk transmission from EUR, JPY, and GBP to other world currencies. We identify major determinants of FX liquidity and highlight important policy implications.
{"title":"SDR adjustment and FX liquidity","authors":"Yu-Lun Chen , J. Jimmy Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102711","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102711","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The inclusion of Chinese renminbi in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) lowers weightings of the other SDR currencies (EUR, JPY, and GBP) in the basket. Conventional wisdom suggests no material impact on those currencies. However, we find that, after the SDR adjustment, the liquidity of down-weighted currencies declines significantly. The SDR adjustment increases the FX liquidity commonality and enhances the liquidity spillover and risk transmission from EUR, JPY, and GBP to other world currencies. We identify major determinants of FX liquidity and highlight important policy implications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 102711"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143429088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-14DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102700
Huai-Long Shi , Huayi Chen
In this work, we focus on the relationship between stocks’ sensitivity to investor sentiment and cross-sectional returns in China. We construct sentiment beta, along with its absolute, positive, and negative variations. Our findings reveal that raw sentiment beta is not priced in cross-sectional returns, whereas the absolute version is. Further analysis demonstrates that the positive sentiment beta better predicts stock returns, in contrast to the insignificant impact of negative sentiment beta. The performance of positive sentiment beta remains significant after controlling for related firm attributes from any specific category; however, it can be jointly explained by all other attributes except for the limit of arbitrage. In light of Baker and Wurgler (2006), we conclude that varying sentimental shocks drive the performance of positive sentiment beta in China.
{"title":"Understanding the role of sentiment beta in China","authors":"Huai-Long Shi , Huayi Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102700","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102700","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this work, we focus on the relationship between stocks’ sensitivity to investor sentiment and cross-sectional returns in China. We construct sentiment beta, along with its absolute, positive, and negative variations. Our findings reveal that raw sentiment beta is not priced in cross-sectional returns, whereas the absolute version is. Further analysis demonstrates that the positive sentiment beta better predicts stock returns, in contrast to the insignificant impact of negative sentiment beta. The performance of positive sentiment beta remains significant after controlling for related firm attributes from any specific category; however, it can be jointly explained by all other attributes except for the limit of arbitrage. In light of Baker and Wurgler (2006), we conclude that varying sentimental shocks drive the performance of positive sentiment beta in China.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 102700"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143437220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-13DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102706
Kaiwen Chang , Dan Luo , Kai Xing , Biao Mi
Green bonds have become an indispensable part of green finance system, offering a market-based solution for financing green innovation (GI). This study examines the impact of green bond issuance (GBI) on GI performance using Chinese listed firms' data from 2007 to 2019. The results show that GBI can promote the GI for both bond issuing firms and their industrial peers, with the impact generated on the former to be more significant. Compared with their peers, the issuing firms tend to focus more on green innovation quality, while the peers are more likely to achieve green innovation increment. Also, the heterogeneity analysis shows that external supervision is important to effectively trigger GI incentives of GBI. The relationship between GBI and GI is more prominent among the state-owned enterprise (SOE), non-heavily polluting firms, and in the eastern region. Furthermore, GBI promotes the GI performance of both issuing and peer firms through different channels. It provides the issuing firms with more R&D investment while enhances the capital utilisation efficiency among peers. Consequently, it is suggested that effective polies should be set in place to ensure that the desired positive outcomes of GBI are achieved, and firms are guided towards more sustained development path.
{"title":"The effectiveness of the green bond instrument on stimulating firms' green innovation performance: A comparative study based on Chinese market","authors":"Kaiwen Chang , Dan Luo , Kai Xing , Biao Mi","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102706","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102706","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Green bonds have become an indispensable part of green finance system, offering a market-based solution for financing green innovation (GI). This study examines the impact of green bond issuance (GBI) on GI performance using Chinese listed firms' data from 2007 to 2019. The results show that GBI can promote the GI for both bond issuing firms and their industrial peers, with the impact generated on the former to be more significant. Compared with their peers, the issuing firms tend to focus more on green innovation quality, while the peers are more likely to achieve green innovation increment. Also, the heterogeneity analysis shows that external supervision is important to effectively trigger GI incentives of GBI. The relationship between GBI and GI is more prominent among the state-owned enterprise (SOE), non-heavily polluting firms, and in the eastern region. Furthermore, GBI promotes the GI performance of both issuing and peer firms through different channels. It provides the issuing firms with more R&D investment while enhances the capital utilisation efficiency among peers. Consequently, it is suggested that effective polies should be set in place to ensure that the desired positive outcomes of GBI are achieved, and firms are guided towards more sustained development path.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 102706"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143429087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-12DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102709
Xiaokun Wei , Yan Jiang , Tian Gan , Honghui Zou
Digital transformation in public sectors has become a prominent trend in economic development and public management. This paper utilizes a difference-in-differences (DID) approach based on the Chinese digital government (DG) policy to explore the impact of DG transformation on venture capital (VC) investment. The results show that DG transformation improves the likelihood and amount of VC investment for startups. These results remain robust after accounting for potential endogeneity concerns and conducting various robust checks. Additionally, this positive effect is driven by enhanced government efficiency and increased innovation activities. Furthermore, the study finds that DG policy shortens VC investment duration, underscoring the impact on investment strategies. This study contributes to the literature by providing novel insights into the effects of public sector digitalization and its role in stimulating private capital markets.
{"title":"One click into capital: The impact of digital government on venture capital","authors":"Xiaokun Wei , Yan Jiang , Tian Gan , Honghui Zou","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102709","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102709","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Digital transformation in public sectors has become a prominent trend in economic development and public management. This paper utilizes a difference-in-differences (DID) approach based on the Chinese digital government (DG) policy to explore the impact of DG transformation on venture capital (VC) investment. The results show that DG transformation improves the likelihood and amount of VC investment for startups. These results remain robust after accounting for potential endogeneity concerns and conducting various robust checks. Additionally, this positive effect is driven by enhanced government efficiency and increased innovation activities. Furthermore, the study finds that DG policy shortens VC investment duration, underscoring the impact on investment strategies. This study contributes to the literature by providing novel insights into the effects of public sector digitalization and its role in stimulating private capital markets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 102709"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143422572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-11DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102707
Jiayu Lin , Dongliang Pan , Yezhou Sha
This study analyzes the impact of ESG investment on fund performance using a sample of China's open-end mutual funds from January 2006 to December 2020. ESG investment style scores were constructed based on portfolio weights and MSCI ESG investment styles. The results show a significant positive correlation between overall ESG investment styles (including the environmental, social, and governance sub-dimensions) and fund performance. After adjusting for four-factor risk, the High-Low strategy (Long-short) yielded monthly excess returns ranging from 0.371% to 0.465%. After considering different degrees of style drift, the funds with lower style drift experienced a stronger positive impact from ESG investment styles, with the High-Low strategy contributing up to 0.615% in monthly excess returns. These findings offer practical strategies for fund managers to optimize portfolio allocation and provide valuable guidance for investors selecting ESG-style funds. This study provides theoretical and empirical support for sustainable finance development in emerging markets.
{"title":"The impact of ESG investment on fund performance: Evidence from mutual fund style drift","authors":"Jiayu Lin , Dongliang Pan , Yezhou Sha","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102707","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102707","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study analyzes the impact of ESG investment on fund performance using a sample of China's open-end mutual funds from January 2006 to December 2020. ESG investment style scores were constructed based on portfolio weights and MSCI ESG investment styles. The results show a significant positive correlation between overall ESG investment styles (including the environmental, social, and governance sub-dimensions) and fund performance. After adjusting for four-factor risk, the High-Low strategy (Long-short) yielded monthly excess returns ranging from 0.371% to 0.465%. After considering different degrees of style drift, the funds with lower style drift experienced a stronger positive impact from ESG investment styles, with the High-Low strategy contributing up to 0.615% in monthly excess returns. These findings offer practical strategies for fund managers to optimize portfolio allocation and provide valuable guidance for investors selecting ESG-style funds. This study provides theoretical and empirical support for sustainable finance development in emerging markets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 102707"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143422570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-10DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102702
Guoqiang Hu , Wenxiang Sun , Yuanzheng Xu , Hong-an Mao
This study examines the impact of executive accountability systems on the financial investments of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Utilizing the staggered regional implementation of the Accountability System for Irregular Operations and Investments (ASIOI) in Chinese SOEs as an exogenous shock and a difference-in-differences design, we observe a significant reduction in SOEs' financial investments after the implementation of the ASIOI. Further analysis reveals that mitigating managerial myopia and strengthening internal control are potential mechanisms through which the ASIOI affects SOEs' financial investments. Cross-sectional tests show that the ASIOI's effects are more pronounced in SOEs with more intense market competition, shorter chairperson tenures, lower financing constraints, and higher agency costs. Moreover, the ASIOI reduces over-investment and speculative investment in financial assets while enhancing core business performance. Overall, our findings highlight the positive impact of executive accountability systems on corporate financial investments and the implications of improving resource allocation efficiency in SOEs.
{"title":"Executive accountability systems and the financial investments of state-owned enterprises in China","authors":"Guoqiang Hu , Wenxiang Sun , Yuanzheng Xu , Hong-an Mao","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102702","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102702","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the impact of executive accountability systems on the financial investments of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Utilizing the staggered regional implementation of the Accountability System for Irregular Operations and Investments (ASIOI) in Chinese SOEs as an exogenous shock and a difference-in-differences design, we observe a significant reduction in SOEs' financial investments after the implementation of the ASIOI. Further analysis reveals that mitigating managerial myopia and strengthening internal control are potential mechanisms through which the ASIOI affects SOEs' financial investments. Cross-sectional tests show that the ASIOI's effects are more pronounced in SOEs with more intense market competition, shorter chairperson tenures, lower financing constraints, and higher agency costs. Moreover, the ASIOI reduces over-investment and speculative investment in financial assets while enhancing core business performance. Overall, our findings highlight the positive impact of executive accountability systems on corporate financial investments and the implications of improving resource allocation efficiency in SOEs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 102702"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143429090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-10DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102704
Yunxing Song , Suin Lee , Bin Wang
This study investigates the effect of digital finance on dividend payouts. Using the digital finance index from PKU-DFICC and a sample of Chinese listed firms, we find a positive relation between digital finance and dividend payouts. Supporting our hypothesis that digital finance reduces information asymmetry and increases insiders' incentive to pay out dividends, the positive relation is stronger for firms with severe information asymmetry. Additionally, digital finance's role in reducing financing constraints also promotes dividend payouts. Overall, our findings suggest noteworthy implications of digital finance on financial markets via dividend payout policy.
{"title":"Digital finance and dividend policy: Evidence from China","authors":"Yunxing Song , Suin Lee , Bin Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102704","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102704","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the effect of digital finance on dividend payouts. Using the digital finance index from PKU-DFICC and a sample of Chinese listed firms, we find a positive relation between digital finance and dividend payouts. Supporting our hypothesis that digital finance reduces information asymmetry and increases insiders' incentive to pay out dividends, the positive relation is stronger for firms with severe information asymmetry. Additionally, digital finance's role in reducing financing constraints also promotes dividend payouts. Overall, our findings suggest noteworthy implications of digital finance on financial markets via dividend payout policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102704"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143395042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-08DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102699
Ying Liu , Hao Zheng , Xuewen Kuang , Jiaxing You
We examine how patent similarity with customers influences supplier firms' labor investment efficiency. Our findings show that higher patent similarity with customers negatively affects suppliers' labor investment efficiency, suggesting that more relationship-specific investments reduce suppliers' flexibility in adjusting labor capital. While shared technological profiles enhance knowledge transfer and collaboration, they also tie suppliers more closely to customer needs, limiting their ability to make efficient labor investment decisions. These effects are more pronounced in supplier firms with higher levels of innovation, a greater reliance on skilled labor, and customers who have more bargaining power. Further analyses reveal that the negative impact stems primarily from suppliers' underfiring, indicating a failure to address redundancy issues. This study contributes to the supply chain literature by introducing the novel perspective of supplier-customer patent similarity and adds to studies on the determinants of labor investment efficiency by incorporating the role of customers into the framework.
{"title":"The dark side of customer-specific innovation: Patent similarity and supplier labor investment efficiency","authors":"Ying Liu , Hao Zheng , Xuewen Kuang , Jiaxing You","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102699","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102699","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine how patent similarity with customers influences supplier firms' labor investment efficiency. Our findings show that higher patent similarity with customers negatively affects suppliers' labor investment efficiency, suggesting that more relationship-specific investments reduce suppliers' flexibility in adjusting labor capital. While shared technological profiles enhance knowledge transfer and collaboration, they also tie suppliers more closely to customer needs, limiting their ability to make efficient labor investment decisions. These effects are more pronounced in supplier firms with higher levels of innovation, a greater reliance on skilled labor, and customers who have more bargaining power. Further analyses reveal that the negative impact stems primarily from suppliers' underfiring, indicating a failure to address redundancy issues. This study contributes to the supply chain literature by introducing the novel perspective of supplier-customer patent similarity and adds to studies on the determinants of labor investment efficiency by incorporating the role of customers into the framework.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102699"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143378639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-07DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102703
Yuyou Chen , Sirui Cheng , Yuning Zhang
This research demonstrates that the Sino-U.S. trade war decreases the acquisition of trade credit of the firms exposed to risk in trade with the U.S., and a strong corporate culture can mitigate the adverse effects of the Sino-U.S. trade war outbreak on Chinese firms. We also find that a strong corporate culture can help enhance firms' innovation and transparency, boosting product competitiveness and upstream suppliers' trust. These effects are more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises. We show that international trading conflict hurts the financing of Chinese enterprises, and well-established informal institutions can mitigate these adverse effects.
{"title":"The Sino-U.S. trade war: Challenges for trade credit financing and the role of corporate culture","authors":"Yuyou Chen , Sirui Cheng , Yuning Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102703","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102703","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This research demonstrates that the Sino-U.S. trade war decreases the acquisition of trade credit of the firms exposed to risk in trade with the U.S., and a strong corporate culture can mitigate the adverse effects of the Sino-U.S. trade war outbreak on Chinese firms. We also find that a strong corporate culture can help enhance firms' innovation and transparency, boosting product competitiveness and upstream suppliers' trust. These effects are more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises. We show that international trading conflict hurts the financing of Chinese enterprises, and well-established informal institutions can mitigate these adverse effects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 102703"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143422571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-06DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102701
Xiaoxi Li, Qinger Zhong, Shasha Liu
This study investigates the effectiveness of public enforcement in financial markets with weak investor protection, specifically examining the impact of China's random inspection policy on corporate disclosure. This policy is designed to prevent selective enforcement by randomly selecting the inspected firms and the inspectors. Our findings indicate that inspected firms significantly improve their disclosure quality by adopting a more conservative tone in subsequent years. Cross-sectional tests reveal a more significant effect among state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and firms with stronger social connections, lower media coverage, and higher litigation risk, which can be attributed to the random inspections reducing regulatory capture, narrowing the information gap, and increasing firms' exposure to regulatory oversight and market participants. However, the influence of these inspections is moderated by market incentives of corporate managers, as proxied by financing demands and insider trading incentives. In addition, a plausible mechanism for this improvement in corporate disclosure quality is the intensified monitoring by external auditors following random inspections. Further evidence indicates a reduction in firms' crash risk due to enhanced disclosure quality after random inspections. Finally, we observe that CSRC random inspections also improve the disclosure quality of non-inspected firms within the same industry, thereby creating a spillover effect. These findings suggest that public enforcement has a significant regulatory impact in financial markets where investor protection is weak through enhancing regulatory transparency and curbing regulatory discretion.
{"title":"Random inspections and corporate information disclosure","authors":"Xiaoxi Li, Qinger Zhong, Shasha Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102701","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102701","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the effectiveness of public enforcement in financial markets with weak investor protection, specifically examining the impact of China's random inspection policy on corporate disclosure. This policy is designed to prevent selective enforcement by randomly selecting the inspected firms and the inspectors. Our findings indicate that inspected firms significantly improve their disclosure quality by adopting a more conservative tone in subsequent years. Cross-sectional tests reveal a more significant effect among state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and firms with stronger social connections, lower media coverage, and higher litigation risk, which can be attributed to the random inspections reducing regulatory capture, narrowing the information gap, and increasing firms' exposure to regulatory oversight and market participants. However, the influence of these inspections is moderated by market incentives of corporate managers, as proxied by financing demands and insider trading incentives. In addition, a plausible mechanism for this improvement in corporate disclosure quality is the intensified monitoring by external auditors following random inspections. Further evidence indicates a reduction in firms' crash risk due to enhanced disclosure quality after random inspections. Finally, we observe that CSRC random inspections also improve the disclosure quality of non-inspected firms within the same industry, thereby creating a spillover effect. These findings suggest that public enforcement has a significant regulatory impact in financial markets where investor protection is weak through enhancing regulatory transparency and curbing regulatory discretion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102701"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143395041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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