时间：2019年10月30日（周三下午），16:00-18:05

地点：学院南路校区主教404

研讨会详细议程：

16:00-17:00

报告一：Do Short Sales Affect a Firm’s Financial Constraints?

报告人：李昕宇（中国人民大学）

摘要：Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2007-2017, we examine the impact of short sales on a firm’s financial constraints. We develop three conceptual frameworks, the negative information effect, the undervaluation effect, and the deterrent effect, based on the prevailing theories and conduct an in-depth empirical analysis using the difference-in-differences, propensity score matching, and instrumental variable methods. Our findings suggest that: (1) Short sales generally worsen a firm’s financial constraints. (2) A shortable firm’s financial constraints deteriorate more seriously in the case of higher credit risk or information asymmetry. (3) When a firm becomes shortable, its negative media coverage increases, external financing cost rises, and the amount of new external financing decreases. (4) The adverse impact of short sales on financial constraints is more pronounced for inefficient state-owned firms and mainly concentrates in the short term. Collectively, these results support the underlying logic of the negative information effect. However, further analysis shows that: (1) The deterrent effect also exists but is much weaker than the negative information effect. (2) The strength of the two effects will “wan and wax” with time or circumstances. Thus, the deterrent effect may outweigh the negative information effect by easing a firm’s financial constraints in a few cases, such as in the long term after short sales deregulation and when short sales magnitude is low or the managers are more sensitive to the decline of stock price. Our paper provides new insights into the impact of shorts sales on financial constraints, revealing some unique Chinese features compared to the US market and offering valuable lessons to other emerging markets.

17:05-18:05

报告二：Business Group Affiliation and Media Slant

报告人：汝毅（清华大学）

摘要：Using a novel dataset in China that connects newspapers to publicly traded companies which are affiliated with the same business group, we examine whether business group affiliation affects the quality of media reporting. We find that the newspapers are more optimistic towards companies with which they are connected through affiliated business groups. Further analyses reveal that the optimism bias varies with the affiliated business group’s incentive, its voice in the newspaper, the firm’s accounting performance and financial leverage, along with some traits of business groups and newspapers. In addition, we find muted investor reactions to the tone of the news articles by connected newspapers. Finally, we show that business group affiliation weakens the information and monitoring role of newspapers. Overall, our evidence suggests the impairment of journalistic objectivity when media and firms have ownership affiliation.

报告人简介：

李昕宇，中国人民大学商学院财务与金融系博士研究生。研究方向为公司战略、卖空对公司财务行为的影响以及僵尸企业的成因与经济后果。曾在《中国工业经济》、《南开管理评论》、《中国会计评论》、《中国软科学》等期刊发表过论文。

汝毅，清华大学经济管理学院会计学博士研究生，曾获国家留学基金委资助赴美国哥伦比亚大学商学院会计系访学1年。研究方向为媒体独立性、信息披露的外部性、银行治理，以及企业国际化。研究成果被国际会议Review of Accounting Studies Conference以及《金融研究》、《会计研究》、《财经研究》等期刊录用。