Review of Financial Studies Vol. 31 No. 1 2018
Who Captures the Power of the Pen?
Abstract
We study how government control affects the roles of the media as an information intermediary and a corporate monitor. Comparing a large sample of news articles written by state-controlled and market-oriented Chinese media, we find that articles by the market-oriented media are more critical, more accurate, more comprehensive, and timelier than those by the state-controlled media. Moreover, only articles by the market-oriented media have a significant corporate governance impact. Subsample analyses, interviews with journalists, and a survey of university students suggest that the market-oriented media’s superior effects are explained by their operating efficiency and independence.
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 43-96
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib