冗余信息还是有用信息?——基于IPO招股说明书风险信息披露的一项实验研究

Redundant Message or Useful Information? An Experimental Study on Risk Disclosure in IPO Prospectus

尽管从直观上的理念而言,冗余信息并不利于资本市场的信息使用人有效使用信息,但语言学范畴上的较高冗余度信息可能通过信息蕴含或复现深化信息使用人的理解。因此,信息冗余度更高时是否必然削弱了对信息使用人的投资决策作用是一个需要实证检验的问题。基于IPO招股说明书风险信息披露的一项实验研究,我们发现被试对冗余度更高的核心技术泄密风险披露表现出更强烈的投资意愿。进一步分析显示,冗余度更高的风险信息披露伴随着被试更低的风险感知,且被试对公司核心技术感受到了更高的潜在市场价值。本文证据意味着冗余度更高的信息并不必然和投资决策无关,并可能提升投资意愿,从而有助于理解冗余度较高的信息披露之所以存在于市场的微观需求。

Intuitively, redundant disclosure may hamper the effective use of information for capital market investors.However, linguistically more redundant disclosure may deepen investors’ understanding of information through information inclusion and/or repetition.Therefore, it is an empirical question whether linguistically more redundant disclosure necessarily weakens the usefulness of investment decision making. Based on an experimental study of risk disclosure in the initial public offering(IPO)prospectus, we find that subjects exhibit stronger willingness of stock investment after reading linguistically more redundant disclosure on critical technique leakage risk compared with less redundant disclosure.Further analysis shows that more redundant risk disclosure is associated with subjects’ lower perceived risk of critical technique leakage, along with a high perceived market value of the company’s critical technique.The evidence suggests that more redundant information is not necessarily irrelevant to investment decision making;rather, it may enhance investment willingness.Taken together, our study helps understand the market demand for linguistically more redundant corporate disclosure.