IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/compes/v61y2019i3d10.1057_s41294-019-00099-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Misconduct and the Cost of Private Debt: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Xian Gu

    (Central University of Finance and Economics)

  • Iftekhar Hasan

    (Fordham University
    Bank of Finland
    University of Sydney)

  • Haitian Lu

    (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Abstract

Using a comprehensive dataset of corporate lawsuits in China, we investigate the implications of corporate misconduct on the cost of private debt. Evidence reveals that firms involved in litigations obtain subsequent loans with stricter pricing terms, 15.1 percent higher loan spreads, than non-litigated borrowers. Strong political connection and repeated relationship help to flatten the sensitivity of loan pricing to litigation. Nonbank financial institutions react in stronger manner to corporate misconduct than traditional banks in pricing loans. Overall, we show that private debt holders care about borrowers’ wrongdoing in the past.

Suggested Citation

  • Xian Gu & Iftekhar Hasan & Haitian Lu, 2019. "Corporate Misconduct and the Cost of Private Debt: Evidence from China," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 61(3), pages 443-463, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:compes:v:61:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1057_s41294-019-00099-8
    DOI: 10.1057/s41294-019-00099-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41294-019-00099-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41294-019-00099-8?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. Andrei Shleifer & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Rafael La Porta, 2008. "The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 285-332, June.
    2. Graham, John R. & Li, Si & Qiu, Jiaping, 2008. "Corporate misreporting and bank loan contracting," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 44-61, July.
    3. Spatt, Chester S, 1985. "Risky Debt, Investment Incentives, and Reputation in a Sequential Equilibrium: Discussion," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(3), pages 878-880, July.
    4. Allen, Franklin & Qian, Jun & Qian, Meijun, 2005. "Law, finance, and economic growth in China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 57-116, July.
    5. Djankov, Simeon & Glaeser, Edward & La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "The new comparative economics," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 595-619, December.
    6. Paul A. Griffin & Joseph A. Grundfest & Michael A. Perino, 2004. "Stock Price Response to News of Securities Fraud Litigation: An Analysis of Sequential and Conditional Information," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 40(1), pages 21-48, February.
    7. Allen, Franklin & Qian, Yiming & Tu, Guoqian & Yu, Frank, 2019. "Entrusted loans: A close look at China's shadow banking system," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 18-41.
    8. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    9. T. S. Raghu & Wonseok Woo & S. B. Mohan & H. Raghav Rao, 2008. "Market reaction to patent infringement litigations in the information technology industry," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 61-75, March.
    10. Patricia M. Dechow & Richard G. Sloan & Amy P. Sweeney, 1996. "Causes and Consequences of Earnings Manipulation: An Analysis of Firms Subject to Enforcement Actions by the SEC," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-36, March.
    11. Diamond, Douglas W, 1991. "Monitoring and Reputation: The Choice between Bank Loans and Directly Placed Debt," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(4), pages 689-721, August.
    12. Borisova, Ginka & Fotak, Veljko & Holland, Kateryna & Megginson, William L., 2015. "Government ownership and the cost of debt: Evidence from government investments in publicly traded firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 168-191.
    13. Allen, Franklin, 1985. "Repeated principal-agent relationships with lending and borrowing," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 27-31.
    14. Murphy, Deborah L. & Shrieves, Ronald E. & Tibbs, Samuel L., 2009. "Understanding the Penalties Associated with Corporate Misconduct: An Empirical Examination of Earnings and Risk," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(1), pages 55-83, February.
    15. Chen, Zhuo & He, Zhiguo & Liu, Chun, 2018. "The Financing of Local Government in the People’s Republic of China: Stimulus Loan Wanes and Shadow Banking Waxes," ADBI Working Papers 800, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    16. Petersen, Mitchell A & Rajan, Raghuram G, 1994. "The Benefits of Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-37, March.
    17. Edvinsson,Rodney & Jacobson,Tor & Waldenström,Daniel (ed.), 2018. "Sveriges Riksbank and the History of Central Banking," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107193109.
    18. Ginka Borisova & William L. Megginson, 2011. "Does Government Ownership Affect the Cost of Debt? Evidence from Privatization," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(8), pages 2693-2737.
    19. Berger, Allen N & Udell, Gregory F, 1995. "Relationship Lending and Lines of Credit in Small Firm Finance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(3), pages 351-381, July.
    20. Jiang, Feng & John, Kose & Li, C. Wei & Qian, Yiming, 2018. "Earthly Reward to the Religious: Religiosity and the Costs of Public and Private Debt," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(5), pages 2131-2160, October.
    21. Karpoff, Jonathan M. & Lee, D. Scott & Martin, Gerald S., 2008. "The Cost to Firms of Cooking the Books," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 581-611, September.
    22. Michael Firth & Oliver M. Rui & Wenfeng Wu, 2011. "The Effects of Political Connections and State Ownership on Corporate Litigation in China," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(3), pages 573-607.
    23. Karpoff, Jonathan M & Lott, John R, Jr & Wehrly, Eric W, 2005. "The Reputational Penalties for Environmental Violations: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 653-675, October.
    24. José María Liberti & Mitchell A. Petersen, 2018. "Information: Hard and Soft," NBER Working Papers 25075, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Diamond, Douglas W, 1989. "Reputation Acquisition in Debt Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 828-862, August.
    26. Gande, Amar & Lewis, Craig M., 2009. "Shareholder-Initiated Class Action Lawsuits: Shareholder Wealth Effects and Industry Spillovers," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(4), pages 823-850, August.
    27. Zou, Hong & Wong, Sonia & Shum, Clement & Xiong, Jun & Yan, Jun, 2008. "Controlling-minority shareholder incentive conflicts and directors' and officers' liability insurance: Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 2636-2645, December.
    28. Lin, Chen & Officer, Micah S. & Wang, Rui & Zou, Hong, 2013. "Directors' and officers' liability insurance and loan spreads," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 37-60.
    29. Deng, Saiying & Willis, Richard H. & Xu, Li, 2014. "Shareholder Litigation, Reputational Loss, and Bank Loan Contracting," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 1101-1132, August.
    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. Iikka Korhonen, 2019. "Forty Years of Chinese Reforms: An Overview," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 61(3), pages 349-358, September.

    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. Xian Gu & Iftekhar Hasan & Haitian Lu, 2023. "Institutions and Corporate Reputation: Evidence from Public Debt Markets," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(1), pages 165-189, February.
    2. Dan Amiram & Zahn Bozanic & James D. Cox & Quentin Dupont & Jonathan M. Karpoff & Richard Sloan, 2018. "Financial reporting fraud and other forms of misconduct: a multidisciplinary review of the literature," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 732-783, June.
    3. Hongling Guo & Zuoping Xiao, 2021. "Effect of severe litigation and bank connection on bank financing in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 3883-3914, September.
    4. Quentin Dupont & Jonathan M. Karpoff, 2020. "The Trust Triangle: Laws, Reputation, and Culture in Empirical Finance Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 217-238, May.
    5. Laure de Batz & Evžen Kočenda & Evžen Kocenda, 2023. "Financial Crime and Punishment: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 10528, CESifo.
    6. Jonathan M. Karpoff, 2021. "On a stakeholder model of corporate governance," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 50(2), pages 321-343, June.
    7. Johnson, William C. & Xie, Wenjuan & Yi, Sangho, 2014. "Corporate fraud and the value of reputations in the product market," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 16-39.
    8. Ma, Liangbo & Ma, Shiguang & Tian, Gary, 2016. "Family control, accounting misstatements, and market reactions to restatements: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 1-27.
    9. Lin, Hsien-Ping & Walker, M. Mark & Wang, Yung-Jang, 2020. "Shareholder wealth effects of corporate fraud: Evidence from Taiwan’s securities investor and futures trader protection act," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 222-243.
    10. Akhtar, Shumi & Akhtar, Farida & John, Kose & Wong, Su-Wen, 2019. "Multinationals' tax evasion: A financial and governance perspective," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 35-62.
    11. Chao Fu & Xiuyuan Deng & Hongfei Tang, 2023. "Who cares about corporate fraud? Evidence from cross-border mergers and acquisitions of Chinese companies," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 747-789, February.
    12. Malm, James & Adhikari, Hari P. & Krolikowski, Marcin W. & Sah, Nilesh B., 2021. "The old guard: CEO age and corporate litigation," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    13. Alperovych, Yan & Divakaruni, Anantha & Manigart, Sophie, 2022. "Lending when relationships are scarce: The role of information spread via bank networks," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    14. Pak Hung Au & Yuk‐Fai Fong & Jin Li, 2020. "Negotiated Block Trade And Rebuilding Of Trust," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 61(2), pages 901-939, May.
    15. Jing Zeng & Xiongyuan Wang & Kam C. Chan, 2021. "Does the value‐added tax Reform increase a firm’s collateral bank loans? Evidence from China," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 681-710, October.
    16. Malm, James & Soyeh, Kenneth W. & Kanuri, Srinidhi, 2023. "Litigation risk and corporate performance," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    17. Cole, Rebel A., 1998. "The importance of relationships to the availability of credit," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 959-977, August.
    18. Cline, Brandon N. & Walkling, Ralph A. & Yore, Adam S., 2018. "The consequences of managerial indiscretions: Sex, lies, and firm value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(2), pages 389-415.
    19. Lin, Zhijun & Song, Byron Y. & Tian, Zhimin, 2016. "Does director-level reputation matter? Evidence from bank loan contracting," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 160-176.
    20. Kempf, Elisabeth & Spalt, Oliver G., 2020. "Attracting the Sharks: Corporate Innovation and Securities Class Action Lawsuits," CEPR Discussion Papers 14358, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Litigation; Loan spreads; Political connection; Relationship;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation

    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:pal:compes:v:61:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1057_s41294-019-00099-8. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.