法律渊源、投资者保护与财务报告质量——来自全球主要股票市场的证据

Legal System, Investor Protection and Financial Reporting Quality ： Evidence from the Global Main Stock Market

本文以全球38个主要股票市场2000-2007年上市公司为样本研究了法律渊源和投资者保护对股票市场财务报告质量的影响。研究发现英美法系国家（地区）股票市场财务报告质量总体上高于大陆法系国家（地区）股票市场财务报告质量，但大陆法系国家（地区）中斯堪的纳维亚大陆法系国家股票市场财务报告质量显著高于英美法系国家（地区）股票市场财务报告质量，法国和德国大陆法系国家（地区）股票市场财务报告质量是最低的。投资者保护越强的国家（地区）股票市场财务报告质量更高。进一步研究发现英美法系国家（地区）投资者保护对其股票市场财务报告质量影响不显著，但在大陆法系国家（地区）投资者保护越好其股票市场财务报告质量越高。这一研究发现表明制定细致且可行的投资者保护法律、加强证券监管和执法效率是可以提高股票市场财务报告质量的，这为我国股票市场财务报告质量的提高提供了一条现实的路径。

This study investigates the effect of legal system and investor protection on stock market level financial reporting quality using data from 38 global main stock exchanges from year 2000 to 2007. This study firstly adopts an overall quality index method to calculate a quality index to measure financial reporting quality at stock market level, i. e. , financial reporting quality index, which is jointly determined by six accounting and auditing indicators, including loss avoidance ratio, profit decline avoidance ratio, accruals ratio, qualified audit opinion ratio, non-Big 4 auditor ratio and audit fee ratio. We then apply this financial reporting quality index in an empirical study of the association between legal system, investor protection and financial reporting quality. First, we examine the association between legal system and financial reporting quality index. Then we investigate the relationship between investor protection and financial reporting quality index using eleven different indicators as a proxy for investor protection institutions. respectively, i. e. . anti-director rights index, revised anti-director rights index, corrected anti director rights index, anti self-dealing index, disclosure requirement index, securities regulation index, strength of investor protection index, legal rights index, property rights index, efficiency of legal framework index, and protection of minority shareholders＇ interests index. Besides these indicators, we further construct a comprehensive investor protection indicator as a proxy for investor protection institutions using principal component analysis method based on the above eleven investor protection indicators. Finally, this study investigates the incremental effect of investor protection in determining financial reporting quality under different legal systems. After controlling for other potential influences, first, we find that financial reporting quality of stock market in common law countries （regions） is significantly higher than code law countries （regions）. Furthermore, financial reporting quality of stock market in the Scan- dinavian code law countries is higher than common law countries （regions）, French and Ger- man code law countries have the lowest financial reporting quality of stock market. Second, we find that countries with stronger investor protection institutions have higher financial reporting quality. Finally, our results show that the positive effect of investor protection on financial reporting quality only exists in code law countries, while common law countries do not. The results are robust to a number of sensitivity tests, and are highly consistent with the prediction, suggesting the comprehensive methodology of this study is a reliable measure of stock market level financial reporting quality . The policy implication of this study is that one country can improve financial reporting quality of stock market through enacting specific and feasible investor protection law, strengthening securities regulation and increasing the effectiveness of legal enforcement. In our view, this is an important and effective way to improve the financial reporting quality in Chinese stock market.