Legal Infrastructure and High-Quality Development of Capital Market: An Event Study Based on the New Securities Law

Abstract

On December 28, 2019, the newly amended “Securities Law of the People’s Republic of China” was reviewed and approved. As the fundamental law of the capital market, the new Securities Law provides institutional guarantee for optimizing and perfecting the basic system of the capital market and promoting the high-quality development of the listed companies. So, how do investors in the capital market understand the new Securities Law? How will the market react to the new Securities Law? Do investors react differently towards the different types of companies? The answer to these questions determines the basic question of the effect of the formulation and implementation of the new Securities Law. This paper intends to conduct a systematic study of this.This study takes the approval of the new Securities Law as a research event to examine the impact of the improvement of the legal infrastructure.The results find that the stock market makes significant positive response upon the approval of the new Securities Law. According to the characteristics of the companies concerned in the new Securities Law, it is found that the companies with higher risk of violation of laws and regulations have poor market reaction, while those with better information environment and higher level of investor protection have more positive market reaction. Further analysis shows that the new Securities Law guides market funds to listed companies on the main board rather than GEM and SME board. A comparative analysis with the official implementation day finds that the market response brought by the introduction of the law is mainly released on the day of approval.The potential contributions of this study are as follows: First, this study contributes to the literature about security laws and market reaction, and provides evidence of Chinese capital market, which lacks private enforcement. Second, this study shows Chinese evidence about amending security laws, and contributes to the literature of “Law and Finance”. Chinese capital market started late but has developed fast, so it is important to learn about the role of security laws. Third, the conclusion has strong policy and practical implications. This paper provides important enlightenment for the implementation of the new Securities Law and the improvement of other legal infrastructures of the capital market. Also, it provides empirical evidence for how to realize the deepening of the securities market reform and ensure the high-quality development of the capital market.