IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecofin/v50y2019ics1062940818304315.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Confucianism and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Jebran, Khalil
  • Chen, Shihua
  • Ye, Yan
  • Wang, Chengqi

Abstract

In this study, we conjecture that Confucianism can curb the managerial bad news suppression behavior and consequently stock price crash risk. Using a unique sample of geographical-proximity-based Confucianism variables and Chinese nonfinancial firms over the period 2004–2014, we show that Confucianism is negatively associated with stock price crash risk. Further, we document that analyst coverage and institutional ownership, as formal governance mechanisms, attenuate the effect of Confucianism on stock price crash risk. The results are consistent to a battery of robustness tests and additional analyses. Overall the findings suggest that Confucianism, as an ethical system, mitigates crash risk in Chinese firms.

Suggested Citation

  • 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).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:50:y:2019:i:c:s1062940818304315
    DOI: 10.1016/j.najef.2019.100995
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062940818304315
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.najef.2019.100995?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Yang Ni & Jeffrey Pittman & Samir Saadi, 2013. "Does Information Asymmetry Matter to Equity Pricing? Evidence from Firms’ Geographic Location," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 140-181, March.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Chen, Joseph & Hong, Harrison & Stein, Jeremy C., 2001. "Forecasting crashes: trading volume, past returns, and conditional skewness in stock prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 345-381, September.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Ball, Ray & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2008. "Earnings quality at initial public offerings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 324-349, August.
    8. Min Zhang & Lu Xie & Haoran Xu, 2016. "Corporate Philanthropy and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 595-617, December.
    9. Xingqiang Du, 2016. "Does Confucianism Reduce Board Gender Diversity? Firm-Level Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 399-436, June.
    10. Po Ip, 2009. "Is Confucianism Good for Business Ethics in China?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 463-476, September.
    11. 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.
    12. Hutton, Amy P. & Marcus, Alan J. & Tehranian, Hassan, 2009. "Opaque financial reports, R2, and crash risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 67-86, October.
    13. 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.
    14. Li, Xiaorong & Chan, Kam C., 2016. "Communist party control and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 5-7.
    15. Panayiotis C. Andreou & Constantinos Antoniou & Joanne Horton & Christodoulos Louca, 2016. "Corporate Governance and Firm†specific Stock Price Crashes," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 22(5), pages 916-956, November.
    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. Zhang, Min & Liu, Yaosong & Xie, Lu & Ye, Tingting, 2017. "Does the cutoff of “red capital” raise a red flag? Political connections and stock price crash risk," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 89-109.
    18. Xingqiang Du, 2013. "Does Religion Matter to Owner-Manager Agency Costs? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 319-347, December.
    19. S. P. Kothari & Susan Shu & Peter D. Wysocki, 2009. "Do Managers Withhold Bad News?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 241-276, March.
    20. Chang, Xin & Chen, Yangyang & Zolotoy, Leon, 2017. "Stock Liquidity and Stock Price Crash Risk," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 1605-1637, August.
    21. Gary chan, 2008. "The Relevance and Value of Confucianism in Contemporary Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 77(3), pages 347-360, February.
    22. Dennis Hwang & Patricia Golemon & Yan Chen & Teng-Shih Wang & Wen-Shai Hung, 2009. "Guanxi and Business Ethics in Confucian Society Today: An Empirical Case Study in Taiwan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 89(2), pages 235-250, October.
    23. Lei Wang & Heikki Juslin, 2009. "The Impact of Chinese Culture on Corporate Social Responsibility: The Harmony Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 433-451, October.
    24. Xingqiang Du, 2015. "Does Confucianism Reduce Minority Shareholder Expropriation? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(4), pages 661-716, December.
    25. Ball, Ray & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2005. "Earnings quality in UK private firms: comparative loss recognition timeliness," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 83-128, February.
    26. Ray Ball & Lakshmanan Shivakumar, 2006. "The Role of Accruals in Asymmetrically Timely Gain and Loss Recognition," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 207-242, May.
    27. Cao, Chunfang & Xia, Changyuan & Chan, Kam C., 2016. "Social trust and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 148-165.
    28. Luo, Jin-hui & Gong, Manning & Lin, Yilong & Fang, Qifeng, 2016. "Political connections and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 90-92.
    29. Xu, Nianhang & Jiang, Xuanyu & Chan, Kam C. & Yi, Zhihong, 2013. "Analyst coverage, optimism, and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 217-239.
    30. Xu, Nianhang & Chan, Kam C. & Jiang, Xuanyu & Yi, Zhihong, 2013. "Do star analysts know more firm-specific information? Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 89-102.
    31. 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.
    32. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Yang Ni & Jeffrey Pittman & Samir Saadi, 2012. "Does Religion Matter to Equity Pricing?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(4), pages 491-518, December.
    33. 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.
    34. Callen, Jeffrey L. & Fang, Xiaohua, 2013. "Institutional investor stability and crash risk: Monitoring versus short-termism?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3047-3063.
    35. Jeong†Bon Kim & Zheng Wang & Liandong Zhang, 2016. "CEO Overconfidence and Stock Price Crash Risk," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(4), pages 1720-1749, December.
    36. Li, Xiaorong & Wang, Steven Shuye & Wang, Xue, 2017. "Trust and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 74-91.
    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. Minghui Li & Chaohai Shen & Mengyao Wen, 2023. "The Effect of Firm-Specific Environmental Punishment on Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence From China," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, October.
    2. Fan, Yunqi & Xu, Zijing, 2022. "Audit firm's Confucianism and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Khalil Jebran & Shihua Chen & Ruibin Zhang, 2022. "Board social capital and stock price crash risk," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 499-540, February.
    4. Ruwei Zhao & Ruixin Fan & Xiong Xiong & Jianli Wang & Jitka Hilliard, 2023. "Media Tone and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from China," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-14, August.
    5. Tan, Huan & Wang, Zhi, 2023. "The impact of confucian culture on the cost of equity capital: The moderating role of marketization process," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 112-126.
    6. Deqiang Deng & Chenchen Ye & Fan Wu & Yijing Guo & Hao Li & Changsheng Wang, 2023. "Effect of organizational ethical self-interest climate on unethical accounting behaviour with two different motivations in China: the moderating effect of Confucian ShiZhong Thinking," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Song, Jie & Liang, Shangkun & Zhen, Yuhan, 2023. "Does CEO-auditor dialect sharing affect stock price crash risk? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    8. Long, Wenbin & Tian, Gary Gang & Hu, Jun & Yao, Daifei (Troy), 2020. "Bearing an imprint: CEOs' early-life experience of the Great Chinese Famine and stock price crash risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    9. Xing, Jieli & Zhang, Yongjie & Xiong, Xiong, 2023. "Social capital, independent director connectedness, and stock price crash risk," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 786-804.
    10. Jebran, Khalil & Chen, Shihua & Zhang, Ruibin, 2020. "Board diversity and stock price crash risk," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    11. Hou, Fei & Shen, Huayu & Wang, Ping & Xiong, Hao, 2023. "Signing auditors' cultural background and debt financing costs," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    12. Kong, Xiaoran & Xu, Siping & Liu, Ming-Yu & Ho, Kung-Cheng, 2023. "Confucianism and D&O insurance demand of Chinese listed companies," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    13. Zhao, Tianjiao & Chan, Kam C., 2023. "Corporate social network and corporate social responsibility: A perspective of interlocking directorates," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    14. Chen, Shihua & Han, Xu & Jebran, Khalil, 2020. "Social trust environment and tunneling," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3).
    15. Yongbo Ge & Xiaoran Kong & Geilegeilao Dadilabang & Kung‐Cheng Ho, 2023. "The effect of Confucian culture on household risky asset holdings: Using categorical principal component analysis," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 839-857, January.
    16. Zhang, Tianjiao & Shen, Zhe & Sun, Qian, 2022. "Product market advertising and stock price crash risk," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    17. Liu, Zhiqiang & Huang, Yanyi & Huang, Ying & Song, Yiping Amy & Kumar, Ajay, 2022. "How does one-sided versus two-sided customer orientation affect B2B platform’s innovation: Differential effects with top management team status," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 619-632.

    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. Xu, Lin & Rao, Yulei & Cheng, Yingmei & Wang, Jianxin, 2020. "Internal coalition and stock price crash risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    2. Jebran, Khalil & Chen, Shihua & Zhang, Ruibin, 2020. "Board diversity and stock price crash risk," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    3. 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.
    4. Ge-zhi Wu & Da-ming You, 2021. ""Stabilizer" or "catalyst"? How green technology innovation affects the risk of stock price crashes: an analysis based on the quantity and quality of patents," Papers 2106.16177, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2021.
    5. 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.
    6. Khalil Jebran & Shihua Chen & Ruibin Zhang, 2022. "Board social capital and stock price crash risk," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 499-540, February.
    7. 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.
    8. Richardson, Grant & Obaydin, Ivan & Liu, Chelsea, 2022. "The effect of accounting fraud on future stock price crash risk," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    9. Yang, Chang & Chen, Xin & Chen, Xian, 2021. "Vertical interlock and stock price crash risk," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    10. Long, Wenbin & Tian, Gary Gang & Hu, Jun & Yao, Daifei (Troy), 2020. "Bearing an imprint: CEOs' early-life experience of the Great Chinese Famine and stock price crash risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    11. 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.
    12. Meng, Yongqiang & Shen, Dehua & Xiong, Xiong, 2023. "When stock price crash risk meets fundamentals," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    13. 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).
    14. Lu, Jing & Qiu, Yuhang, 2023. "Does non-punitive regulation diminish stock price crash risk?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    15. Jin, Hong-min & Su, Zhong-qin & Wang, Lu & Xiao, Zuoping, 2022. "Do academic independent directors matter? Evidence from stock price crash risk," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 1129-1148.
    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. Ahsan Habib & Mostafa Monzur Hasan & Haiyan Jiang, 2018. "Stock price crash risk: review of the empirical literature," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(S1), pages 211-251, November.
    18. Chen, Jing & Liu, Xinghe & Ou, Fenghao & Lu, Meiting & Wang, Peipei, 2023. "Green lending and stock price crash risk: Evidence from the green credit reform in China," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    19. Hu, Juncheng & Li, Xiaorong & Duncan, Keith & Xu, Jia, 2020. "Corporate relationship spending and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China's anti-corruption campaign," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Confucianism; Stock price crash risk; Analyst coverage; Institutional ownership; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    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:ecofin:v:50:y:2019:i:c:s1062940818304315. 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.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620163 .

    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.