大规模卖空促进了“媒企合谋”吗?——来自A股市场的经验证据

Does Large-Scale Short-Selling Promote Collusion between Media and Firms? Empirical Evidence from the A-share Market

在特殊时期,企业有强烈的动机与媒体达成合谋,操纵媒体制造正面报道或隐瞒负面报道,以促使股价上涨。本文采用2010年3月至2018年6月中国上市公司的媒体报道数据,实证研究了企业在遭遇大规模卖空时与媒体的合谋行为。结果发现:(1)对于遭遇大规模卖空的企业,媒体的报道基调更积极,且这一现象在产品市场竞争激烈的企业中更明显;(2)遭遇大规模卖空的企业会通过投放更多广告来贿赂媒体,使媒体对其的报道基调更积极;(3)更积极的媒体报道基调主要是由负面报道的减少而非正面报道的增加所致;(4)大规模卖空会导致企业股价下跌,而更积极的媒体报道基调有助于提升股价,且更积极的媒体报道基调能够减轻大规模卖空对股价的负面影响。这些发现表明大规模卖空促进了"媒企合谋"。本文的研究结论有助于深化对卖空机制实施效果的认知,同时也为深入理解"媒企合谋"的动机提供了新的经验证据。

In special times, firms have a strong incentive to conspire with the media and manipulate the media to produce positive reports or to conceal negative reports, so as to promote the stock prices to rise. Based on the data reported by the media of Chinese listed firms from March 2010 to June 2018, this paper empirically studies the collusion of firms with the media when they encounter large-scale short-selling. The results show that:(1) The tone of media coverage is more positive for firms that suffer from large-scale short-selling, and this is especially true for firms with highly competitive product markets;(2) Firms that suffer from massive short-selling tend to bribe the media by placing more ads. This allows the media to give them a more positive tone;(3) The more positive tone of media coverage is mainly due to a decrease in negative coverage rather than an increase in positive coverage;(4) Large-scale short-selling can lead to a decline in a firm’s stock price, while a more positive media tone can help to lift the stock price, and a more positive media tone can mitigate the negative impact of large-scale short-selling on the stock price. These findings suggest that large-scale short-selling encourages firms to collude with the media. The research conclusions of this paper are helpful to deepen the cognition of the implementation effect of short-selling mechanism, and provide new empirical evidence for the in-depth understanding of the motivation of "the collusion between firms and media".