法治建设与金融高质量发展——来自中国债券市场的证据

Law and High-quality Financial Development:Evidence from Bond Markets in China

债务是经济发展最主要的外部融资手段,债务的结构也会对高质量发展有深刻影响。债务合约的两种主要方式——银行贷款和债券在合约实施方面有着显著区别。前者主要明确以企业的资产(如房地产)作抵押;而后者则隐性地以企业的剩余资产或未来现金流作抵押,合约实施难度更大,更依赖于对债权人的法律保护。然而,现有研究多关注法律保护对银行贷款的影响,对债券市场影响的研究相对缺乏。本文利用2019—2021年间各地设立破产法庭这一自然实验,采用双重差分方法识别了债权人法律保护对企业债券的影响。研究发现,破产法庭的成立显著降低了当地企业债券在二级市场上的利差。进一步分析显示,抵押品的可获得性越强、抵押品价值不确定性越小、债权人对企业的控制权越强,破产法庭的效果就越强。相应地,对债权人法律保护的加强也降低了企业在一级市场的发债成本,并提升了企业债务结构中债券融资和长期负债的比例。本文的研究表明,法律实施的改进会有效促进债券市场的发展,改善中国的金融结构,促进中国的高质量发展。

Debt is the main source of external finance for firms and economic development and the structure of debt contracts can have profound impacts on the quality of economic development.Bank loans and bonds,the two most important types of debt contracts,are significantly different in their enforcement.Bank loans are mostly backed by assets(e.g.,real estate).Bonds,however,are mostly backed by the internal value(future cash flow)of the firm,which is more difficult to enforce and more dependent on effective legal protection for creditors.Most existing literature studies the impacts of legal protection on bank loans;the analysis of the impacts on the bond market is relatively lacking.We aim at filling this void by providing evidence from Chinese bond markets.This paper exploits the quasi-natural experiment of the introduction of specialized bankruptcy courts,which started in 2019.It identifies the effects of creditor protection on corporate bond markets using the Difference-in-Differences methodology.We find that the reform significantly reduces the spreads of local corporate bonds in the secondary markets.Further analysis shows that the stronger the availability(enforceability)of collateral,the weaker the uncertainty of collateral value.The stronger the creditor’s control over the firm,the stronger the economic effects of bankruptcy courts.Furthermore,the reform also reduces the cost of issuing bonds in the primary markets and improves firms’debt structure.Following the reforms,firms have issued more bonds and relied less on bank loans,and they have increased their share of long-term liabilities.The paper has three contributions.First,it provides a much-needed look at the effects of bankruptcy system on bond markets,rather than bank loans.Second,even the limited research on loans mostly uses cross-country data and is hard to establish causality.The natural quasi-experiment in China constitutes an ideal setting to address the question.Third,the collateral equilibrium approach,an emerging unifying framework for finance and macroeconomics,sheds light on institutions and finance in particular.The paper systematically tests the predictions of the theory.The paper has several important policy implications.First,improving legal enforcement,especially in the protection of creditor rights,can enhance direct finance for firms.It amounts to releasing the“sleeping”collateral in China’s economy,and efficiently relaxes the collateral shortage problem facing many developing and emerging economies.The paper shows that the bankruptcy reform is Pareto-improving:it not only better protects the creditor rights,but also reduces the financing cost for firms and improves their capital structure.There is still much“dead capital”(including rural land and housing,movable,and intangible assets)to be released through property rights and legal reforms.Second,it is imperative for China to transition from an asset-based financial system to a cash-flow-based financial system.The former relies on assets external to the firms,while the latter relies on the internal values of the firms.The transition will be essential for an innovation-driven economic growth model.In terms of business cycles and financial fragility,a cash-flow-based system will reduce the heavy reliance on common collateral like housing and real estate,therefore moderating business cycles and reducing systemic financial risks.Third,further legal reforms can create more collateral,improve China’s financial structure,and enhance high-quality development in China.As China has entered the innovation-driven development stage and is closer to the world technological frontier,the projects and associated collateral are more uncertain.Financing based on internal value other than bank loans is becoming more important.In particular,cash-flow-based financing(like bond and equity markets)is coming to the fore.Historically,it has taken developed economies like the US decades to transition from an asset-based system to a cash-flow-based system.The driving force of this transition is improvement in corporate accounting,corporate governance,and bankruptcy systems that provide better protection of creditor rights.It is high time for China to further reform in this area to support a new financial system for the country’s high-quality development.