IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v66y2026i1p392-408.html

Financial Leverage and Stock Price Crash Risk: The Role of Growth in Chinese Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Yong Ma
  • Yanfang Wan
  • Yixiao Zhao

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of financial leverage on stock price crash risk using firm‐level panel data from Chinese firms. Our findings reveal a significantly negative relationship between financial leverage and crash risk, challenging the prevailing literature that often reports a positive association. This result is robust across various endogeneity tests and sensitivity analyses. We identify firm growth as a key channel through which financial leverage is positively linked to crash risk. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that the negative impact of financial leverage on crash risk is amplified in firms with larger size, higher profitability, greater financialisation or more concentrated institutional ownership. Notably, we also find that a non‐linear relationship between leverage and crash risk exists in specific sectors—such as services, education, health and culture. This underscores the necessity for a tailored approach to understanding leverage dynamics within different industry contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Yong Ma & Yanfang Wan & Yixiao Zhao, 2026. "Financial Leverage and Stock Price Crash Risk: The Role of Growth in Chinese Firms," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 66(1), pages 392-408, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:66:y:2026:i:1:p:392-408
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.70106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.70106
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/acfi.70106?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. Joseph D. Piotroski & T.J. Wong, 2012. "Institutions and Information Environment of Chinese Listed Firms," NBER Chapters, in: Capitalizing China, pages 201-242, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Fenghua Wen & Longhao Xu & Bin Chen & Xiaohua Xia & Jinyi Li, 2020. "Heterogeneous Institutional Investors, Short Selling and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(12), pages 2812-2825, September.
    3. Kim, Yongtae & Li, Haidan & Li, Siqi, 2014. "Corporate social responsibility and stock price crash risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-13.
    4. Danbee Park & Joocheol Kim, 2015. "Financial Derivatives Usage and Monetary Policy Transmission: Evidence from Korean Firm-level Data," Global Economic Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 101-115, March.
    5. Wang, Meng & Han, Miao & Huang, Wei, 2020. "Debt and stock price crash risk in weak information environment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    6. Minghui Yang & Yan Wang & Lu Bai & Petra Maresova, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility, family involvement, and stock price crash risk," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1204-1225, May.
    7. Jin, Li & Myers, Stewart C., 2006. "R2 around the world: New theory and new tests," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 257-292, February.
    8. Davidson Heath & Giorgo Sertsios, 2022. "Profitability and Financial Leverage: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(11), pages 8386-8410, November.
    9. Victor Chernozhukov & Denis Chetverikov & Mert Demirer & Esther Duflo & Christian Hansen & Whitney Newey & James Robins, 2018. "Double/debiased machine learning for treatment and structural parameters," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 21(1), pages 1-68, February.
    10. Leilei Gu & Jinyu Liu & Yuchao Peng, 2022. "Locality Stereotype, CEO Trustworthiness and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(4), pages 773-797, February.
    11. Jeong†Bon Kim & Liandong Zhang, 2014. "Financial Reporting Opacity and Expected Crash Risk: Evidence from Implied Volatility Smirks," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 851-875, September.
    12. Alfaro, Laura & Asis, Gonzalo & Chari, Anusha & Panizza, Ugo, 2019. "Corporate debt, firm size and financial fragility in emerging markets," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 1-19.
    13. Minghui Yang & Shaoming Chen & Jiawen Wang & Yan Wang, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility and stock price crash risk: does analyst coverage matter?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(10), pages 1045-1061, February.
    14. Byers, Steven S. & Fields, L. Paige & Fraser, Donald R., 2008. "Are corporate governance and bank monitoring substitutes: Evidence from the perceived value of bank loans," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 475-483, September.
    15. Jeong†Bon Kim & Liandong Zhang, 2016. "Accounting Conservatism and Stock Price Crash Risk: Firm†level Evidence," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 412-441, March.
    16. Xu, Nianhang & Li, Xiaorong & Yuan, Qingbo & Chan, Kam C., 2014. "Excess perks and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 419-434.
    17. Yang, Jui-Chung & Chuang, Hui-Ching & Kuan, Chung-Ming, 2020. "Double machine learning with gradient boosting and its application to the Big N audit quality effect," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 216(1), pages 268-283.
    18. Li Pan & Ya Tang & Jianguo Xu, 2016. "Speculative Trading and Stock Returns," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 20(5), pages 1835-1865.
    19. Douglas W. Diamond, 1984. "Financial Intermediation and Delegated Monitoring," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(3), pages 393-414.
    20. Cole, Rebel A. & Sokolyk, Tatyana, 2018. "Debt financing, survival, and growth of start-up firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 609-625.
    21. Pound, John, 1988. "Proxy contests and the efficiency of shareholder oversight," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 237-265, January.
    22. Callen, Jeffrey L. & Fang, Xiaohua, 2015. "Religion and Stock Price Crash Risk," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(1-2), pages 169-195, April.
    23. Fenghua Wen & Longhao Xu & Bin Chen & Xiaohua Xia & Jinyi Li, 2020. "Heterogeneous Institutional Investors, Short Selling and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(12), pages 2812-2825, September.
    24. Kim, Jeong-Bon & Li, Yinghua & Zhang, Liandong, 2011. "Corporate tax avoidance and stock price crash risk: Firm-level analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 639-662, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hou, Canran & Liu, Huan, 2023. "Institutional cross-ownership and stock price crash risk," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Fu, Fanjie & Fang, Jing & Yang, Mei & Yao, Shujie, 2024. "Institutional investor horizons and stock price crash risk," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(PA).
    3. Jiang, Kangqi & Du, Xinyi & Chen, Zhongfei, 2022. "Firms' digitalization and stock price crash risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    4. Lin, Tse-Chun & Liu, Jinyu & Ni, Xiaoran, 2022. "Foreign bank entry deregulation and stock market stability: Evidence from staggered regulatory changes," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 185-207.
    5. Bing Wang & Kung‐Cheng Ho & Xinyu Liu & Yan Gu, 2022. "Industry cash flow volatility and stock price crash risk," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(2), pages 356-371, March.
    6. Kim, Jeong-Bon & Liao, Shushu & Liu, Yangke, 2021. "Married CEOs and Stock Price Crash Risk," QBS Working Paper Series 2021/09, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's Business School.
    7. Jebran, Khalil & Chen, Shihua & Ye, Yan & Wang, Chengqi, 2019. "Confucianism and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    8. Wen, Fenghua & Xu, Longhao & Ouyang, Guangda & Kou, Gang, 2019. "Retail investor attention and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    9. Xu, Lin & Rao, Yulei & Cheng, Yingmei & Wang, Jianxin, 2020. "Internal coalition and stock price crash risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    10. Yuan, Li & Tao, Jing & Li, Haitong & Dai, Pengyi, 2024. "Narrative innovation disclosure and stock price crash risk: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    11. Leilei Gu & Jinyu Liu & Yuchao Peng, 2022. "Locality Stereotype, CEO Trustworthiness and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(4), pages 773-797, February.
    12. Zuo, Junqing & Zhang, Wei & Hu, Mingya & Feng, Xu & Zou, Gaofeng, 2022. "Employee relations and stock price crash risk: Evidence from employee lawsuits," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    13. Liao, Lin & Sharma, Divesh & Yang, Yitang (Jenny) & Zhao, Rui, 2023. "Adoption and content of key audit matters and stock price crash risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    14. Lu, Xian-wei & Fung, Hung-Gay & Su, Zhong-qin, 2018. "Information leakage, site visits, and crash risk: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 487-507.
    15. Muhammad Hamza Khan & Muhammad Rizwan *, 2021. "The Impact of Stock Price Crash Risk on the Cost of Capital: Empirical Study from China," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 3(2), pages 88-97.
    16. Xuan Vinh Vo, 2020. "Foreign Investors and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from Vietnam," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 993-1004, December.
    17. Jebran, Khalil & Chen, Shihua & Zhang, Ruibin, 2020. "Board diversity and stock price crash risk," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    18. Zhang, Li & Liu, Chengyi & Zhang, Jinjin & Ke, Jinjun & Yuan, Jiayue, 2023. "Party leadership, corporate governance and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    19. Yeung, Wing Him & Lento, Camillo, 2018. "Ownership structure, audit quality, board structure, and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 1-24.
    20. Richardson, Grant & Obaydin, Ivan & Liu, Chelsea, 2022. "The effect of accounting fraud on future stock price crash risk," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:acctfi:v:66:y:2026:i:1:p:392-408. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.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.