Research Article
The Effect of Political Connections on the Relationship between Accounting Earnings Quality and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies
1 Jungju Kyungong University, 2 Chonnam National University
Published: January 2020 · Vol. 49, No. 1 · pp. 1-29
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2020.49.1.1
Full Text
Abstract
This study is to examine the relation between stock price crash risk and the quality of accounting information and whether the political connections have an impact on that relation in Chinese capital market. China offers a good opportunity to investigate the effect of political connections to stock price crash risk due to China’s unique governance of its state-owned firms and the impact of the central government"s policy on the capital market is very big. Politically connected firms may have less incentive to hide negative information because they are given more financial support by the government, but political connection can increase the stock price crash risk due to concerns on career of managers or government’s supervision, Using 11,076 Chinese firms listed on Shanghai and Shenzhen in 2007-2016, our findings are follows. First, we find that the lower the quality of accounting information, the higher the risk of stock price crash. Second discretionary accruals of state-owned firms showed a lower risk of stock crash than non-state-owned firms but, this result is partial. Third, the Communist Party Managers affect the relation between stock price crash risk and discretionary accruals negatively. This indicates that Communist Party Managers increase the stock price crash risk following to earnings management. This study is the first attempt to examine the effect of the political connection to the relation between the quality of accounting information and stock price crash risk and we expect to provide useful information on CEO’s political relation to multi-national investors and regulators.
