主题：Stock market liberalization and earnings management: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

　　主讲人：高开娟，湖南大学工商管理学院助理教授

　　时间：9月3日（周二）上午10：00

　　地点：A204

　　主办单位：武汉大学经济与管理学院会计系，武汉大学财务与会计研究所

　　主讲人简介：

　　高开娟，会计学博士，现任湖南大学工商管理学院助理教授。目前已在《International Review of Economics & Finance》《Finance Research Letters》《China Journal of Accounting Research》《管理世界》《金融研究》《南开管理评论》《会计研究》等期刊发表多篇学术成果。担任《International Review of Economics & Finance》《南开管理评论》《管理评论》等期刊匿名审稿人。主持及参与多项国家及省部级课题。

　　讲座主要内容：

　　Capitalizing on a quasi-natural experiment in China where some firms become investible to the global market across different times (i.e., pilot firms), we explore the role that stock market liberalization plays in shaping firms’ financial reporting practices. In one direction, market liberalization may benefit firms by generating more demand for high quality earnings, inducing a revaluation premium, easing firms’ financial constraints, and strengthening their corporate governance, all of which improve firms’ accounting transparency. In the other direction, the potential volatility stemming from international speculative hot money casts doubt on whether the potential benefits of removing a country’s capital controls outweigh the associated costs. To gauge which force is more dominant, we rely on a staggered difference-in-differences research design and find that pilot firms significantly reduce the magnitude of discretionary total and working capital accruals from the pre-liberalization period to the post-liberalization period, compared to non-pilot firms during the same timeframe. Further, we identify two specific mechanisms through which market liberalization curbs firms’ earnings management: (i) auditors more strictly monitor pilot firms; and (ii) pilot firms experience significant increases (decreases) in ownership of dedicated (transient) institutional investors. Our research provides insight on the importance of financial global integration to firms’ discretionary reporting practices.

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