中小投资者司法保护的信息治理效应:基于司法审判专业性的视角

The Information Governance Effect of Retail Investor Judicial Protection:From the Perspective of Judicial Trial Specialization

司法在保护中小投资者合法权益中发挥着重要作用。为此,我国从审判专业性的角度完善司法制度,创新性地在部分地区分批试点设立金融法院,专门审理证券虚假陈述责任纠纷等金融案件。基于此,本文借助这一外生冲击,研究司法审判专业性对上市公司的信息治理效应,结果发现设立金融法院后,试点地区上市公司的信息披露质量显著上升,表现为应计盈余管理显著下降。机制分析发现,设立金融法院不仅能提高司法质效,而且能唤醒投资者的维权意识,提高试点地区前期信息质量差的公司的涉诉概率,还会督促独立董事更好地履职尽责,提高独立董事发表否定意见的概率。异质性分析发现,设立金融法院对公司信息披露质量的提升效果主要在内部控制质量、机构投资者持股比例和地区官员廉洁守法程度低的组别中更显著。经济后果分析发现,设立金融法院不仅能够改善证券市场信息环境,而且能够起到稳定金融市场的效果。本文结论表明,司法审判专业性在上市公司信息披露质量方面能够发挥积极的治理效应,并佐证了中小投资者司法保护对资本市场健康运行、防范化解重大金融风险的积极意义。

Previous studies mainly focused on the impact of some regulatory measures(i.e.,inquiry letters,random inspections)or China Security Investor Service Center on the information disclosure quality.Those regulatory approaches require efficient and professional legal support.Thus,existing literature focused on how the introduction of the new“Securities Law”and other relevant laws affects the infor-mation disclosure.However,little attention paid on the impact of the specialization of judicial trials on the information disclosure quality.Judicial plays an important role in protecting the interests of retail in-vestors.For this reason,China has improved the judicial system from the perspective of trial specialization,and innovatively set up financial courts on a pilot basis in some areas,specializing in financial cases such as securities misrepresentation cases.Ex-ante,we cannot know that whether the specialization of judicial trial can effectively improve the information disclosure quality.On the one hand,the specialization of judicial trails can improve the quality and efficiency of judicial trails,strengthen investor protection,and improve the information disclosure quality.At the same time,the improvement of judicial trial specialization will reduce the cost of rights protection for investors,so that when listed companies have false statements or low-quality accounting information,they will face more lawsuits,play a deterrent effect,and force listed companies to improve the quality of information disclosure.On the other hand,listed companies have a strong radiation and driving role,and are often large local taxpayers.Courts and judges are inevitably subject to the“lobbying”of the gov-ernment.At this time,the improvement of judicial trial professional-ism will be affected by judicial independence and cannot force listed companies to improve the quality of information disclosure.Therefore,whether the professionalism of judicial trials can improve the quality of information disclosure is an open question.Based on this,with the help of the exogenous shock of the financial court pilot,this paper investigates the front-end governance effect of ju-dicial trial specialization on the information disclosure quality,and find that after the establishment of financial courts,the disclosure quality of listed companies in the pilot areas rises significantly,which is mainly manifested in the significant decline of accrual earnings management.Mechanism analysis finds that the establishment of the financial courts can improve judicial efficiency and impartiality,and awaken investors’awareness of rights protection,which is mainly manifested in a sig-nificant increase in the probability of lawsuits with lower information quality;at the same time,the establishment of the financial court urges independent directors to better perform their duties,which is mainly manifested in a significant increase in the probability of independent directors of negative votes.Cross-sectional analysis finds that the effect of the establishment of financial courts on the improvement of informa-tion disclosure quality is more significant in the group with low internal control quality,institutional investors and regional officials’integrity.The analysis of economic consequences finds that the establishment of financial courts can have the effect of improving information envi-ronment and stabilizing the financial market,which is manifested in a significant reduction in the analysts’earnings forecast error and stock price crash risk in the pilot region.This paper contributes to the existing literature in the following aspects:first,this paper enriches the relevant literature on“law and finance”from the perspective of judicial specialization.Existing literatures mainly focus on the impact of circuit courts on corporate investment and innovation from the perspective of judicial independence;or using the establishment of intellectual property courts and liquidation and bankruptcy tribunals on corporate innovation from the perspective of judicial specialization.Compared with those literature,our paper focuses on the governance effect of judicial specialization on the quality of in-formation disclosure from the perspective of investor judicial protection,which is an important supplement to the existing literatures in the field of“law and finance”.At the same time,with the help of the exogenous shock of the financial court pilot,this paper can better test the impact of judicial professionalism on the quality of information disclosure,alleviate the endogenous problems,and draw more reliable conclusions.Second,from the perspective of judicial specialization,this paper enriches the relevant literature on the determinants of information disclosure quality.Existing literature mostly focuses on the impact of regulatory measures(such as inquiry letters,random inspections,etc.)or China Security Investor Service Center on the quality of information disclosure of listed companies from the perspective of how regulato-ry bodies can improve the quality of information disclosure of listed companies.All of the above-mentioned supervision requires efficient and professional laws as support.However,existing literature mostly focuses on how the introduction of the new“Securities Law”and other related laws affects the information disclosure of listed companies.Few studies focus on how the specialization of judicial trials affects the quality of information disclosure.This paper may be the first literature to focus on this perspective,which is a useful supplement to the exist-ing literature.Third,this paper provides the economic consequences of the estab-lishment of financial courts for the first time.In order to prevent and resolve major financial risks and improve the specialization of financial case trials,China has set up pilot financial courts in some regions.However,the relevant economic consequences of those financial courts are still in the blank stage.From the perspective of protecting small and medium-sized investors,this paper finds that the financial courts can play an information governance effect.The conclusion of this paper for the first time examines the economic consequences of the establish-ment of financial courts,which proves the positive significance of the establishment of financial courts.Fourth,the conclusion of this paper has important policy significance.At present,China mainly implements financial courts in some regions on a pilot basis.Whether this policy needs to be promoted nationwide remains to be discussed.From the perspective of information disclo-sure quality,this paper affirms the importance of establishing financial courts and provides important theoretical references for the promotion and implementation.At the same time,the judicial department can also continuously enrich relevant measures from the perspective of trial pro-fessionalism to better protect the legitimate rights and interests of small and medium-sized investors,ensure the healthy operation of the capital market,and prevent and resolve major financial risks.