卖空机制具有治理作用吗?——基于内控质量的经验证据

Does Short Selling Play a Governance Role?Empirical Evidence Based on the Internal Control Quality

以2014年至2018年我国A股上市公司为样本,以解除卖空限制这一事件为研究情境,系统考察了卖空制度执行对企业内控质量的影响。研究发现,解除卖空限制显著促进了企业内部控制水平的提高,并且在资本市场外部监督机制较宽松的情况下,卖空机制对企业内部控制质量的促进作用更加明显。内控质量改善动因分析表明低质量内控行为引起卖空势力的聚集,导致企业面临较大的卖空压力。卖空压力的存在是企业完善内控体系、提升内控质量的重要动因。经济后果分析表明解除卖空限制以内控质量改善为途径,促进了企业财务报表真实可靠、经营效率效果及合法合规等内控目标的实现。研究结果提供了卖空机制与内控质量间因果关系的经验证据,对于理解资本市场监督机制对企业内控制度影响的经济后果具有重要意义。

Taking the event of pilot margin trading in China as the research situation,this paper investigates how short selling affects internal control quality of listed Chinese firms.We have following findings:First,we find that after lifting the short-selling constrain,the internal control quality of affected firms improved significantly and when the capital market supervision is weaker,the positive effect of short-selling mechanism on internal control quality is more obvious.Second,we find that short sellers accumulate positions in firms that disclosing ICW or internal control quality deteriorates,which means that short sellers put great pressure on firms with signs of low internal control.The long-standing of the short-selling pressure promotes managers to remediate internal control deficiencies and build up internal control system.Last,we also perform a series tests about internal control objectives.We find that the reliability of financial reporting,the effectiveness of operation and the compliance with law and regulations have improved,being affected by the short-selling pressure,while internal control quality plays a mediating role in this process.This paper has provided empirical evidence about causal relationship between short-selling and internal control quality,which shed light on how capital market supervising mechanism affect internal control system,and deepens our understanding of economic consequences about short-selling mechanism.