IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v70y2021icp123-147.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Monetary policy tightening, accounting information comparability, and underinvestment: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Zhonghai
  • Lu, Yang
  • Tan, Wenhao

Abstract

Based on a macro and micro cross view, we empirically test the interactions among monetary policy, accounting information comparability, and investment efficiency with a sample of A-share listed firms in China from 2005 to 2019. We find that tightening monetary policy will aggravate underinvestment behavior, such as inefficient investment, while improvement in accounting information comparability can effectively mitigate the negative impact of tightening monetary policy on underinvestment, so as to improve firm investment efficiency. Further study shows that, in a period of monetary policy tightening, firms with high agency costs and high financing constraints can significantly reduce underinvestment by improving the comparability of accounting information, thus improving the investment efficiency of firms. After distinguishing the type of firm ownership (state-owned enterprises vs. private enterprises), we find that firms can reduce the effect of insufficient investment during a period of monetary tightening by improving the comparability of accounting information, which is more significant in the sample of private enterprises (PEs).

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Zhonghai & Lu, Yang & Tan, Wenhao, 2021. "Monetary policy tightening, accounting information comparability, and underinvestment: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 123-147.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:70:y:2021:i:c:p:123-147
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2021.02.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592621000254
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2021.02.005?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gus De Franco & S.P. Kothari & Rodrigo S. Verdi, 2011. "The Benefits of Financial Statement Comparability," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 49(4), pages 895-931, September.
    2. Ashcraft, Adam B. & Campello, Murillo, 2007. "Firm balance sheets and monetary policy transmission," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 1515-1528, September.
    3. Biddle, Gary C. & Hilary, Gilles & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2009. "How does financial reporting quality relate to investment efficiency?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 112-131, December.
    4. Lin Chen & Sumei Luo & Tian Zhao, 2019. "Financial Constraints, Trade Mode Transition, and Global Value Chain Upgrading of Chinese Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-18, August.
    5. Wenhao Tan & Shuangli Yu & Zhenpeng Ma, 2018. "The Impact of Business Groups on Investment Efficiency: Does Capital Allocation Matter?," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(15), pages 3539-3551, December.
    6. Bradley S. Wimmer & Brian Chezum, 2006. "Adverse Selection, Seller Effort, and Selection Bias," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 201-218, July.
    7. Bernanke, Ben S & Blinder, Alan S, 1988. "Credit, Money, and Aggregate Demand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(2), pages 435-439, May.
    8. Ball, Ray & Kothari, S. P. & Robin, Ashok, 2000. "The effect of international institutional factors on properties of accounting earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-51, February.
    9. Bernanke, Ben & Gertler, Mark, 1989. "Agency Costs, Net Worth, and Business Fluctuations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 14-31, March.
    10. Riccetti, Luca & Russo, Alberto & Mauro, Gallegati, 2013. "Financial Regulation in an Agent Based Macroeconomic Model," MPRA Paper 51013, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Chen, Shimin & Sun, Zheng & Tang, Song & Wu, Donghui, 2011. "Government intervention and investment efficiency: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 259-271, April.
    12. De Graeve, F. & Kick, T. & Koetter, M., 2008. "Monetary policy and financial (in)stability: An integrated micro-macro approach," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 205-231, September.
    13. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    14. Lyandres, Evgeny, 2007. "Costly external financing, investment timing, and investment-cash flow sensitivity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 959-980, December.
    15. Duchin, Ran & Ozbas, Oguzhan & Sensoy, Berk A., 2010. "Costly external finance, corporate investment, and the subprime mortgage credit crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 418-435, September.
    16. Nathalie Moyen & Stefan Platikanov, 2013. "Corporate Investments and Learning," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(4), pages 1437-1488.
    17. Ole‐Kristian Hope & Wayne B. Thomas, 2008. "Managerial Empire Building and Firm Disclosure," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 46(3), pages 591-626, June.
    18. Bradley S. Wimmer & Brian Chezum, 2006. "Adverse Selection, Seller Effort, and Selection Bias," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(1), pages 201-218, July.
    19. Bhattacharya, Utpal & Daouk, Hazem & Welker, Michael, 2003. "The World Price of Earnings Opacity," Working Papers 127185, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    20. Yang, Xingquan & Han, Liang & Li, Wanli & Yin, Xingqiang & Tian, Lin, 2017. "Monetary policy, cash holding and corporate investment: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 110-122.
    21. Wenhao Tan & Zhenpeng Ma, 2016. "Ownership, Internal Capital Market, and Financing Costs," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(5), pages 1259-1278, May.
    22. Xiong, Weibo, 2012. "Measuring the monetary policy stance of the People's bank of china: An ordered probit analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 512-533.
    23. Stephen C. Vogt, 1994. "The Cash Flow/investment Relationship: Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing Firms," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 23(2), Summer.
    24. Hyunseob Kim & Howard Kung, 2017. "The Asset Redeployability Channel: How Uncertainty Affects Corporate Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 245-280.
    25. Cutillas Gomariz, Mª Fuensanta & Sánchez Ballesta, Juan Pedro, 2014. "Financial reporting quality, debt maturity and investment efficiency," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 494-506.
    26. García Lara, Juan Manuel & García Osma, Beatriz & Penalva, Fernando, 2016. "Accounting conservatism and firm investment efficiency," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 221-238.
    27. Woon Gyu Choi & Mr. Yungsan Kim, 2001. "Monetary Policy and Corporate Liquid Asset Demand," IMF Working Papers 2001/177, International Monetary Fund.
    28. Ru Gao & Baljit K. Sidhu, 2018. "Convergence of accounting standards and financial reporting externality: evidence from mandatory IFRS adoption," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(3), pages 817-848, September.
    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. Li, Weixue & Wang, Sipei & Cheung, Adrian (Wai Kong) & Xu, Changsheng, 2024. "Shadow banking, investment and interest rate transmission: Evidence from macroprudential policy in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 115-133.
    2. Hao-Chang Yang & Chun-Ping Chang & Sahminan & Arnita Rishanty, 2021. "Monetary Policy, Innovation Efficiency, And Total Factor Productivity," Working Papers WP/15/2021, Bank Indonesia.
    3. Wan, Jianjun & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2023. "Corporate investment and the dilemma of the monetary policy: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 106-121.
    4. Xu, Shengnan & Su, Shaohua, 2025. "Enterprise investment in the era of digital finance: Information transparency and investment efficiency analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Wang, Jinbo & Ran, Maosheng & Huang, Qing & Li, Wanli, 2022. "Nationalization of private enterprises and default risk: Evidence from mixed-ownership reform in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 534-553.
    6. Faisal Faisal & Aliya Zhakanova Isiksal & Ala Fathi Assi & Adnan Ali & Hamid Ghazi H Sulimany, 2025. "Financial risk, sustainable development, natural resources and green finance: unveiling the shadow economy in the BRICST countries," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 38(2), pages 397-412, June.
    7. Zhang, Ruchuan & Gao, Weiyan & Chen, Shanshan & Zhou, Li & Li, Aijun, 2024. "Dose digital transformation contribute to improving financing efficiency? Evidence and implications for energy enterprises in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    8. Xiaobao SONG & Wunhong SU, 2022. "Heterogeneous Debt Financing and Share Return Volatility," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(1), pages 85-105, April.
    9. Li, Xiao-Lin & Xie, Pinyi & Ding, Hui & Si, Deng-Kui, 2023. "Central bank lending facility and investment efficiency of non-SOEs: evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    10. Yanwei Lyu & Jinning Zhang & Xinnian Qing & Yangyang Bai, 2025. "The influence of non‐financial enterprises' financialization on total factor productivity of enterprises: Promotion or inhibition?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 172-189, January.
    11. Karel Brůna & Jiří Pour, 2023. "Population aging and structural over/underinvestment," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 2339-2383, August.

    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. Rehana Anwar & Jaleel A. Malik, 2020. "When Does Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure Affect Investment Efficiency? A New Answer to an Old Question," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, June.
    2. Asiri, Mohammed & Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Taylor, Grantley & Duong, Lien, 2020. "Is corporate tax avoidance associated with investment efficiency?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    3. Liu, Sun & Zhang, Jie, 2023. "Conditional conservatism and investment efficiency under a state ownership environment: Further evidence from China," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    4. Yasean A. Tahat & Ahmed H. Ahmed & David Power, 2022. "Earnings quality and investment efficiency: the role of the institutional settings," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1277-1306, April.
    5. Zhe Li & Oksana Pryshchepa & Bo Wang, 2023. "Financial experts on the top management team: Do they reduce investment inefficiency?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1-2), pages 198-235, January.
    6. Lijuan Xiao & Min Bai & Yafeng Qin & Lingyun Xiong & Lijuan Yang, 2021. "Financial Slack and Inefficient Investment Decisions in China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(4), pages 920-941, June.
    7. Mahbuba Aktar & Mohammad Zoynul Abedin & Anupam Das Gupta, 2021. "The Impact of Monetary Policy Shocks on Corporate Dynamic Investment Activity With Financial Heterogeneity," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440209, February.
    8. Biehl, Henrike & Bleibtreu, Christopher & Stefani, Ulrike, 2024. "The real effects of financial reporting: Evidence and suggestions for future research," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    9. Ghaly, Mohamed & Dang, Viet Anh & Stathopoulos, Konstantinos, 2020. "Institutional investors' horizons and corporate employment decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    10. Arvidsson, Susanne & Eierle, Brigitte & Hartlieb, Sven, 2024. "Job satisfaction and investment efficiency – Evidence from crowdsourced employer reviews," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 266-280.
    11. Kim, Jaewoo, 2018. "Asymmetric timely loss recognition, adverse shocks to external capital, and underinvestment: Evidence from the collapse of the junk bond market," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 148-168.
    12. Kim, Seonhyeon & Thompson, Ephraim Kwashie & Kim, Changki, 2023. "Credit rating and managerial behavior in investment decision making: Evidence from the Korean market," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    13. Cao, Ning & McGuinness, Paul B. & Xi, Chao, 2024. "Majority-of-the-minority shareholder votes and investment efficiency," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    14. Jiang, Kangqi & Chen, Zhongfei & Rughoo, Aarti & Zhou, Mengling, 2022. "Internet finance and corporate investment: Evidence from China," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    15. Ijaz Ur Rehman & Faisal Shahzad & Khawaja Fawad Latif & Noman Nawab & Abdul Rashid & Shabir Hyder, 2021. "Does corporate social responsibility mediate the influence of national culture on investment inefficiency? Firm‐level evidence from Asia Pacific," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 3484-3503, July.
    16. BENKRAIEM, Ramzi & GAAYA, Safa & LAKHAL, Faten, 2024. "Tax avoidance, investor protection, and investment inefficiency: An international evidence," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    17. Shen, Chung-Hua & Luo, Fuyan & Huang, Dengshi, 2015. "Analysis of earnings management influence on the investment efficiency of listed Chinese companies," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 60-78.
    18. Rawat, Savita & Chaudhry, Neeru, 2025. "Earnings quality, business group affiliation, and investment efficiency," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    19. Jeong‐Bon Kim & Leye Li & Louise Yi Lu & Yangxin Yu, 2021. "Financial statement comparability and managers’ use of corporate resources," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 1697-1742, April.
    20. Ha, Joohyung, 2019. "Agency costs of free cash flow and conditional conservatism," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-1.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    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:eee:ecanpo:v:70:y:2021:i:c:p:123-147. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    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.