Analyzing Corporate Governance Model with Chinese Characteristics and Accounting Information Disclosure: a Quasi-natural Experimental Study Based on a Special Institutional Arrangement

A new corporate governance model for SOEs with Chinese characteristics was implemented in China in 2016, in which a 4 + 1 (Chinese Communist Party committee, shareholders’ meeting, board of directors, board of supervisors + managers) corporate governance structure was formed by integrating the Party organization into the traditional Western 3 + 1 structure (shareholders’ meeting, board of directors, board of supervisors + managers), and it was a major breakthrough of the modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics. With this brand-new institutional arrangement as a quasi-nature experiment, the propensity score matching (PSM) and differences-in-differences (PSM-DID) methods have been used in this paper to empirically test the impact of the corporate governance model with Chinese characteristics on accounting information disclosure of state-owned enterprises (SOE). It has been found in the study that the corporate governance model with Chinese characteristics has improved the transparency of accounting information of SOEs in China, but no significant contribution to the quality of accounting information has been identified. Samples are subdivided in view of the influence of the hierarchy and internal governance of Chinese SOEs. In central government-owned enterprises or those with a low level of internal control, the new governance model plays a more prominent role in enhancing the transparency of accounting information. The study verifies the positive effect of the corporate governance model with Chinese characteristics in improving the level of accounting information disclosure. Also, the study has practical significance in enhancing the corporate governance system with Chinese characteristics.