中国会计准则的国际趋同与信息不对称——来自A股公司交易量的经验证据

International Convergence of Chinese Accounting Standards and Information Asymmetry——Empirical Evidence from Turnover of A-share Companies

本文以A股公司为样本,以交易量作为信息不对称的代理变量,分析了中国会计准则的国际趋同对信息不对称的影响,检验了会计准则的国际趋同是否能够减少信息不对称。研究结果发现,在控制了买卖价差、股票报酬波动性和公司规模等变量的影响以后,会计准则国际趋同变量与A股公司的交易量显著正相关,中国会计准则的国际趋同能够显著减少信息不对称。

On February 15, 2006, the Chinese Ministry of Finance released a basic standard and 38 specific standards. Since then, the Chinese accounting standards have made substantial convergence with International Ac- counting Standards. In the capital markets, there is information asymmetry between company management and in- vestors as well as investors. Accounting standards are an institutional arrangement to reduce information asymmetry. The goal of international convergence of accounting standards is to provide accounting information users with high- quality accounting information, reduce information asymmetry, optimize the allocation of resources and enhance e- conomic efficiency. The current research literature have analyzed the effect of international convergence of account- ing standards on information asymmetry in the institutional environment with developed market economies and sound legal systems, but not analyzed whether international convergence of accounting standards can reduce information a- symmetry in the emerging market economies. Ball, etc. （2000）, Ball, etc. （2003）, and He （2007） showed that the institutional environment will affect the implementation of accounting standards and the quality of accounting in- formation. Because of the different institutional environment, the quality of accounting information of different coun- tries or regions, even with the same accounting standards, will be significant difference. In order to improve the ef- ficiency of resource allocation and to achieve international convergence of accounting standards, the emerging mar- ket economies, such as China and Russia, have adopted the International Accounting Standards. There is a big difference between the emerging and developed market economies in terms of economic, legal and political system, analyzing whether international convergence of accounting standards can reduce information asymmetry in the emer- ging market economies is a very important and interesting research question. In order to make economic decisions, investors evaluate financial position, operating results and cash flows of enterprises, and forecast the future development trend of enterprises by using the full disclosure of financial reports. Chinese new accounting standards have improved accounting recognition, measurement and reporting, and provided more useful information to investors and other users of accounting information. The financial reporting of listed com- panies is an important way to solve the problem of information asymmetry between company management and inves- tors as well as investors. By improving companies＇ financial reporting and information disclosure, can international convergence of Chinese accounting standards reduce information asymmetry between investors？ Using A-share com- panies in China as samples and turnover as a proxy for information asymmetry, this paper analyzes the effect of in- ternational convergence of Chinese accounting standards on information asymmetry, and tests whether international convergence of Chinese accounting standards can reduce information asymmetry in emerging and transitional envi- ronment. The conclusions are as follows： After controlling the effect of bid-ask spreads, volatility of stock returns and firm size variables, the correlation of international convergence variable and turnover of A-share companies is significantly positive, and international convergence of Chinese accounting standards can reduce information asym- metry significantly. The above findings show that, in emerging and transitional environment, the international con- vergence of accounting standards can also reduce information asymmetry, thereby contributing to the effective func- tioning of capital markets. Research contributions of this paper are mainly reflected in the following two areas. On one hand, this paper enriches and improves the current research literature on international convergence of account- ing standards and information asymmetry, and provides empirical evidence that international convergence of ac- counting standards can reduce information asymmetry in the emerging market economy. On the other hand, the con- clusions of this paper provide policy recommendations for the international convergence of accounting standards and accounting supervision.