Topic: Anti-Corruption Reforms and Shareholder Valuations: Event Study Evidence from China

Speaker: Bernard Y. Yeung, Stephen Riady Distinguished Professor, National University of Singapore

Date: September 22nd (Friday)

Time: 10:00-11:30am

Location: Building 1, Room 100

Language: English

Abstract:

Consistent with reduced expected corruption adding value overall, Chinese shares rise sharply on the December 4th 2012 launch of major anti-corruption reforms starting with curtailing extravagant spending by or for Party cadres. SOEs gain broadly, consistent with the reform cutting their top managers’ (all Party cadres) spending on private benefits. NonSOEs gain in more liberalized provinces, consistent with reduced expected bribes to officials (also Party cadres) for getting business done. NonSOEs lose in provinces where market institutions remain weak, consistent with bribes for “greasing bureaucratic gears” still being a key resource allocation mechanism there. Firm level regressions reveal more productive nonSOEs in more growth potential and external finance-dependent industries gaining more in more liberalized provinces, consistent with investors expecting reduced corruption to improve resource allocation more where market institutions are more developed.

About the speaker:

Professor Bernard Yeung is the Dean and Stephen Riady Distinguished Professor in Finance and Strategic Management and President of the Asia Bureau of Finance and Economic Research at National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School. Before joining NUS in June 2008, he was the Abraham Krasnoff Professor in Global Business, Economics, and Management at New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business. He has also served as the Director of the NYU China House, the honorary co-chair of the Strategy Department of the Peking University Guanghua School of Management.

He received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Western Ontario and his MBA and PhD degrees from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. Professor Yeung has published widely in academic journals and his writing also appears in top-tier media publications such as The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.