IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v67y2021i11p7142-7166.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Newspaper Censorship in China: Evidence from Tunneling Scandals

Author

Listed:
  • Ole-Kristian Hope

    (Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E6, Canada; BI Norwegian Business School, 0484 Oslo, Norway)

  • Yi Li

    (Business School, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan 410000, China)

  • Qiliang Liu

    (School of Accountancy, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang 330013, China)

  • Han Wu

    (Department of Accounting and Management Control, École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris (HEC Paris), 78350 Jouy-en-Josas, France)

Abstract

Media dissemination plays an important role in facilitating price discovery. Political pressure that restricts media dissemination can hinder this function and affect investors’ perceptions. This paper studies the magnitude of newspaper censorship in China and its economic consequences using a setting of tunneling scandals. We find significant evidence of censorship of tunneling-related negative news at the national and local levels. We further show that news that survives censorship reduces information asymmetry and improves pricing efficiency. Censorship blocks informative tunneling news and delays incorporation of tunneling reporting into prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Ole-Kristian Hope & Yi Li & Qiliang Liu & Han Wu, 2021. "Newspaper Censorship in China: Evidence from Tunneling Scandals," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(11), pages 7142-7166, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:67:y:2021:i:11:p:7142-7166
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2020.3804
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2020.3804
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.2020.3804?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ruben Enikolopov & Maria Petrova & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2011. "Media and Political Persuasion: Evidence from Russia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 3253-3285, December.
    2. Alexander Dyck & Natalya Volchkova & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "The Corporate Governance Role of the Media: Evidence from Russia," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1093-1135, June.
    3. Robert M. Bushman & Abbie J. Smith & Regina Wittenberg‐Moerman, 2010. "Price Discovery and Dissemination of Private Information by Loan Syndicate Participants," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5), pages 921-972, December.
    4. Chenggang Xu, 2011. "The Fundamental Institutions of China's Reforms and Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1076-1151, December.
    5. Jiaxing You & Bohui Zhang & Le Zhang, 2018. "Who Captures the Power of the Pen?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(1), pages 43-96.
    6. Joseph D. Piotroski & T. J. Wong & Tianyu Zhang, 2015. "Political Incentives to Suppress Negative Information: Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 405-459, May.
    7. Elizabeth Blankespoor & Ed deHaan & Christina Zhu, 2018. "Capital market effects of media synthesis and dissemination: evidence from robo-journalism," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-36, March.
    8. Brian J. Bushee & John E. Core & Wayne Guay & Sophia J.W. Hamm, 2010. "The Role of the Business Press as an Information Intermediary," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 1-19, March.
    9. Liu, Baixiao & McConnell, John J., 2013. "The role of the media in corporate governance: Do the media influence managers' capital allocation decisions?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 1-17.
    10. Bai, Chong-En & Du, Yingjuan & Tao, Zhigang & Tong, Sarah Y., 2004. "Local protectionism and regional specialization: evidence from China's industries," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 397-417, July.
    11. Bei Qin & David Strömberg & Yanhui Wu, 2017. "Why Does China Allow Freer Social Media? Protests versus Surveillance and Propaganda," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 117-140, Winter.
    12. Guglielmo Barone & Francesco D'Acunto & Gaia Narciso, 2015. "Telecracy: Testing for Channels of Persuasion," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 30-60, May.
    13. Gregory S. Miller, 2006. "The Press as a Watchdog for Accounting Fraud," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 1001-1033, December.
    14. Butler, Marty & Kraft, Arthur & Weiss, Ira S., 2007. "The effect of reporting frequency on the timeliness of earnings: The cases of voluntary and mandatory interim reports," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 181-217, July.
    15. Core, John E. & Guay, Wayne & Larcker, David F., 2008. "The power of the pen and executive compensation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 1-25, April.
    16. Jiang, Guohua & Lee, Charles M.C. & Yue, Heng, 2010. "Tunneling through intercorporate loans: The China experience," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 1-20, October.
    17. Joe, Jennifer R. & Louis, Henock & Robinson, Dahlia, 2009. "Managers’ and Investors’ Responses to Media Exposure of Board Ineffectiveness," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(3), pages 579-605, June.
    18. Qian, Yingyi & Roland, Gerard & Xu, Chenggang, 1999. "Why is China different from Eastern Europe? Perspectives from organization theory," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4-6), pages 1085-1094, April.
    19. Jennifer R. Joe, 2003. "Why Press Coverage of a Client Influences the Audit Opinion," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 109-133, March.
    20. Jonathan Reuter & Eric Zitzewitz, 2006. "Do Ads Influence Editors? Advertising and Bias in the Financial Media," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 197-227.
    21. Umit G. Gurun & Alexander W. Butler, 2012. "Don't Believe the Hype: Local Media Slant, Local Advertising, and Firm Value," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(2), pages 561-598, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Shanye & Ying, Qianwei & Liu, Jinsong, 2023. "Does regulatory punishment improve financial media’s information intermediary role?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Baloria, Vishal P. & Heese, Jonas, 2018. "The effects of media slant on firm behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(1), pages 184-202.
    2. Bai, Jing & Tang, Xuesong & Zheng, Yuxin, 2023. "Serving the truth: Do directors with media background improve financial reporting quality?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    3. Lili Dai & Rui Shen & Bohui Zhang, 2021. "Does the media spotlight burn or spur innovation?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 343-390, March.
    4. Liu, Mingzhi & Tang, Songlian & Wu, Zhenyu & Zeng, Rong, 2023. "The impact of foreign ownership on the media’s role in curbing insider trading around private meetings," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    5. Wu, Yanling & Tian, Gary Gang, 2021. "Public relations expenditure, media tone, and regulatory decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. Hossain, Md Miran & Javakhadze, David, 2020. "Corporate media connections and merger outcomes," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    7. Yang, Shuai & Wu, Chao, 2021. "Do Chinese managers listen to the media?: Evidence from mergers and acquisitions," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    8. Siddiqui, Sayla & Shams, Syed, 2023. "Media coverage and patent trolls: A study on US high-tech firms," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    9. Jia, Ming & Ruan, Hongfei & Zhang, Zhe, 2017. "How rumors fly," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 33-45.
    10. Mansouri, Sasan, 2021. "Does firm's silence drive media's attention away?," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242433, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    11. Gregory S. Miller & Douglas J. Skinner, 2015. "The Evolving Disclosure Landscape: How Changes in Technology, the Media, and Capital Markets Are Affecting Disclosure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 221-239, May.
    12. Yangyang Chen & C. S. Agnes Cheng & Shuo Li & Jingran Zhao, 2021. "The monitoring role of the media: Evidence from earnings management," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3-4), pages 533-563, March.
    13. Tung L. Dang & Thi H. H. Huynh & Manh T. Nguyen, 2021. "Media attention and firm value: International evidence," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 21(3), pages 865-894, September.
    14. Dang, Tung Lam & Dang, Man & Hoang, Luong & Nguyen, Lily & Phan, Hoang Long, 2020. "Media coverage and stock price synchronicity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    15. Gao, Xin & Xu, Weidong & Li, Donghui & Xing, Lu, 2021. "Media coverage and investment efficiency," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 270-293.
    16. Liu, Qigui & Tang, Jinghua & Li, Donghui & Xing, Lu, 2023. "The role of bad-news coverage and media environments in crash risk around the world," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 488-509.
    17. Dang, Tung Lam & Dang, Viet Anh & Moshirian, Fariborz & Nguyen, Lily & Zhang, Bohui, 2019. "News media coverage and corporate leverage adjustments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    18. Jacobs, Heiko, 2020. "Hype or help? Journalists’ perceptions of mispriced stocks," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 550-565.
    19. Borochin, Paul & Cu, Wei Hua, 2018. "Alternative corporate governance: Domestic media coverage of mergers and acquisitions in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-25.
    20. Lili Dai & Jerry T. Parwada & Bohui Zhang, 2015. "The Governance Effect of the Media's News Dissemination Role: Evidence from Insider Trading," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 331-366, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:67:y:2021:i:11:p:7142-7166. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.