利率管制松绑、企业会计信息披露质量与融资约束

已有研究发现,以资本价格——利率为代表的要素市场改革会对企业行为产生重要影响,但这种影响的作用机理如何通过改变资本市场中的信息供求关系予以实现,亟待深入研究。为此,本文以我国2013年央行全面放开利率管制为背景,基于产权性质差异构建双重差分模型,检验利率管制松绑在企业层面的信息溢出效应。研究发现:央行全面放开利率管制不仅有助于促进企业披露高质量的会计信息,还能够缓解企业的融资约束,且企业信息披露质量的提升是导致利率管制松绑降低融资约束的重要渠道。进一步研究发现,对于市场化程度较低地区、R&D投入较高以及短期贷款占比较大的公司,上述信息溢出效应更加显著;另外,利率管制松绑后企业披露高质量的会计信息能够增进投资者的信任,提高信息披露的价值相关性。以上研究结论表明,为应对利率市场化改革带来的机遇与挑战,保障可持续发展,企业会选择主动优化信息环境,来消除信贷市场摩擦,解决"融资难"问题。

Interest Rate Control Loosening,Quality of Accounting Information and Financing Constraints

The conflict with the supply and demand of information caused by the macro-market changes is an important force to promote corporate information disclosure.With the gradual improvement of the capital market,market participants always have higher requirements for the quality of information.As the so-called“survival of the fittest,the elimination of discomfort”,firms can fully grasp external opportunities and achieve sustainable development only by adapting to the macro external environment such as economy,politics and culture.Information disclosure is an important means and intuitive reflection of major changes in the external market.From the perspective of information demanders,macroeconomic policy changes are often accompanied by major uncertainties.Investors and creditors will increase their dependence on high-quality information in order to reduce risks,and form the information competition effect.From the perspective of information providers,high-quality information supply will prompt firms to adjust the quality of information disclosure to ensure that they occupy a favorable position in the capital market.In 2013,the full liberalization of financial institutions interest rates was a major change in the factor market represented by capital price-interest rate,ending the history of China s“interest rate control”for many years.The interest rate marketization reform has triggered extensive discussions since its implementation,and its influence has become increasingly prominent.In this context,the effect of the implementation of interest rate liberalization,especially on corporate behavior,has received a lot of attention from the academic community.It has been found that the interest rate control loosening is very extensive,and it has a significant impact on corporate behavior,such as capital structure adjustment,investment efficiency etc.However,the scope of the interest rate control loosening is so wide,and there may be deep-rooted reasons that are not revealed.Based on the exogenous event of interest rate deregulation in 2013,this paper builds a DID model based on the difference in property rights,and tests the information spillover effect of interest rate control loosening at the firms level.The study finds that the loosening of interest rate control not only helps to improve the quality of corporate information disclosure,but also eases the financing constraints of firms.The mechanism test finds that the improvement of the quality of corporate information disclosure is an important channel between the loosening of interest rate control and financing constraints.Further research finds that for firms with lower marketization,higher R&D investment,and more short-term loans,the information spillover effect of interest rate control is more significant.In addition,after interest rate control loosening,the disclosure of high-quality accounting information can increase investor trust and improve the value relevance of information disclosure.The above research conclusions show that in order to cope with the opportunities and challenges brought about by the loosening of interest rate control and guarantee sustainable development,firms will choose to actively optimize the information environment to eliminate the friction of the credit market and solve the problem of“funding difficulties”.The research contributions of this paper are as follows:First,it is helpful to explore the mechanism of the impact of interest rate control loosening on the allocation of credit resources.Previous studies have shown that the relaxation of interest rate control has a positive impact on optimizing capital structure and reducing inefficient investment,but there are few specific ways to relax interest rate regulation to achieve credit resource allocation.Second,this paper expands the relevant literature on the factors affecting the quality of accounting information,and contributes to a more comprehensive and profound understanding of the applicable conditions of the usefulness of accounting information quality.Third,it helps to bridge the“fault”problem from the factor market to the capital market,which is a cross-market research field,and deepens the understanding of the mechanism of“macro market environment and micro-enterprise behavior”.This paper can be seen as a supplement to the research field of macro-micro interaction.