Economic policy uncertainty and litigation risk: Evidence from China

IF 4.8 2区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

Pacific-Basin Finance Journal Pub Date : 2025-04-05 DOI:10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102773

Bingye Zhang , Yiwen Zhao , Meng Yang , Tingzhu Liu

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

With the continuous promotion of legal system construction, the enforcement requirements for China's capital market have become stricter. Therefore, the risk of litigation faced by listed companies is gradually increasing. This study uses a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2021 to empirically test the impact and mechanism of economic policy uncertainty on corporate litigation risk. Research shows that economic policy uncertainty significantly increases litigation risk. This conclusion holds true after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. Mechanism analysis shows that the paths through which economic policy uncertainty affects litigation risk are corporate fraud, internal control levels, and corporate transparency. Furthermore, this effect is more significant for firms located in regions with strong legal systems and those with weak external governance, aggressive strategies, and CEOs with less social capital. This study provides new empirical evidence for the negative impact of economic policy uncertainty on enterprises and new references for regulating the governance behaviour of listed companies and promoting the stable operation of the capital market.

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经济政策的不确定性与诉讼风险：来自中国的证据

随着法制建设的不断推进，中国资本市场的执法要求也越来越严格。因此，上市公司面临的诉讼风险正在逐渐增加。本研究以2010 - 2021年中国a股上市公司为样本，实证检验经济政策不确定性对公司诉讼风险的影响及机制。研究表明，经济政策的不确定性显著增加了诉讼风险。经过一系列稳健性和内生性检验，这一结论成立。机制分析表明，经济政策不确定性影响诉讼风险的路径为公司欺诈、内部控制水平和公司透明度。此外，这种效应在法律制度健全的地区、外部治理薄弱的地区、激进战略的地区和ceo社会资本较少的地区更为显著。本研究为经济政策不确定性对企业的负面影响提供了新的实证证据，为规范上市公司治理行为、促进资本市场稳定运行提供了新的参考。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Pacific-Basin Finance Journal BUSINESS, FINANCE-

CiteScore

6.80

自引率

6.50%

发文量

157

期刊介绍： The Pacific-Basin Finance Journal is aimed at providing a specialized forum for the publication of academic research on capital markets of the Asia-Pacific countries. Primary emphasis will be placed on the highest quality empirical and theoretical research in the following areas: • Market Micro-structure; • Investment and Portfolio Management; • Theories of Market Equilibrium; • Valuation of Financial and Real Assets; • Behavior of Asset Prices in Financial Sectors; • Normative Theory of Financial Management; • Capital Markets of Development; • Market Mechanisms.