{"title":"Governmental venture capital and investor sentiment: Evidence from Chinese government guidance funds","authors":"Xinfei Huang , Yue Zhang , Zhe Zong","doi":"10.1016/j.intfin.2025.102120","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While the role of government-backed venture capital (GVC) in influencing companies’ operating performance has been well-documented, its potential impact on the financial market remains less explored. This paper aims to fill this gap in the context of China’s venture capital market. Since 2002, the Chinese government has launched a type of policy VC fund—government guidance funds (GGFs)—to stimulate innovation, industrial transformation, and local economic growth. Using a sample of 2,860 IPO companies from 2010 to 2021, we show that GGF-backed IPOs exhibited higher initial returns than both non-VC-backed and non-GGF VC-backed IPOs. A decomposition of the initial returns reveals that this effect was driven by market overvaluation rather than IPO price discounts. Consistent with investor sentiment and signaling theory, our results suggest that investors held optimistic views towards GGF-backed companies. However, when assessing post-IPO operating and innovation performance, GGF-backed companies did not outperform their counterparts. Overall, this paper highlights the signaling effects of GGFs in the financial market and provides important policy implications for the design of GVC programs worldwide.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48119,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Financial Markets Institutions & Money","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 102120"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of International Financial Markets Institutions & Money","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1042443125000101","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
While the role of government-backed venture capital (GVC) in influencing companies’ operating performance has been well-documented, its potential impact on the financial market remains less explored. This paper aims to fill this gap in the context of China’s venture capital market. Since 2002, the Chinese government has launched a type of policy VC fund—government guidance funds (GGFs)—to stimulate innovation, industrial transformation, and local economic growth. Using a sample of 2,860 IPO companies from 2010 to 2021, we show that GGF-backed IPOs exhibited higher initial returns than both non-VC-backed and non-GGF VC-backed IPOs. A decomposition of the initial returns reveals that this effect was driven by market overvaluation rather than IPO price discounts. Consistent with investor sentiment and signaling theory, our results suggest that investors held optimistic views towards GGF-backed companies. However, when assessing post-IPO operating and innovation performance, GGF-backed companies did not outperform their counterparts. Overall, this paper highlights the signaling effects of GGFs in the financial market and provides important policy implications for the design of GVC programs worldwide.
期刊介绍:
International trade, financing and investments, and the related cash and credit transactions, have grown at an extremely rapid pace in recent years. The international monetary system has continued to evolve to accommodate the need for foreign-currency denominated transactions and in the process has provided opportunities for its ongoing observation and study. The purpose of the Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money is to publish rigorous, original articles dealing with the international aspects of financial markets, institutions and money. Theoretical/conceptual and empirical papers providing meaningful insights into the subject areas will be considered. The following topic areas, although not exhaustive, are representative of the coverage in this Journal. • International financial markets • International securities markets • Foreign exchange markets • Eurocurrency markets • International syndications • Term structures of Eurocurrency rates • Determination of exchange rates • Information, speculation and parity • Forward rates and swaps • International payment mechanisms • International commercial banking; • International investment banking • Central bank intervention • International monetary systems • Balance of payments.