This study examines whether facilitation payments drive managers to manipulate earnings, thus weakening financial disclosure transparency. I find economically and statistically significant evidence that facilitation payments relate positively to earnings management levels in China. The impact of...

The general intuition is that corporate corruption, as a violation of legal and ethical principles, is contrary to corporate social responsibility (CSR), which signifies firms’ willingness to do the right things. However, we find evidence of the opposite in China—corruption positively...

I document evidence that financial statement comparability curbs the incorporation of firm-specific information into stock prices, resulting in higher stock price synchronicity in China. The positive comparability-synchronicity relationship is more pronounced when firms operate in culturally...

A bulk of extant literature suggests that corruption impedes innovation. However, we document the opposite evidence in China—corruption in the form of greasing money enhances corporate innovation outcomes. Our identification strategy exploits China’s anti-corruption campaign as a shock to...