XBRL Implementation and Post-Earnings-Announcement Drift: The Impact of State Ownership in China

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we test the impact of XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) on information asymmetry in the emerging market of China. We focus on the association between XBRL and information asymmetry (proxied by Post-Earnings-Announcement Drift [PEAD]) across two ownership structures: state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which are dominant in China, and non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs). We find that information asymmetry diminishes significantly, as reflected by a significant decline in PEAD, after the mandatory adoption of XBRL, and it diminishes more significantly in SOEs than non-SOEs. Our results remain robust after we control for market and accounting factors that may influence PEAD. Our paper not only supports XBRL's role in improving the market efficiency of the emerging market, but also first documents the impact of government ownership on the implementation of XBRL.