儒家文化与会计稳健性：来自中国的证据

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of Confucian culture on accounting conservatism. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms during the period of 2001-2017, the findings reveal that Confucian culture (measured as the number of Confucian temples and schools within a specific radius around a firm) is significantly positively associated with accounting conservatism, suggesting that Confucian ethics and culture are beneficial to promoting conservatism in accounting practices. Moreover, corporate litigation risk attenuates the positive effect of Confucian culture on accounting conservatism. Above findings are robust to a variety of sensitivity tests using alternative proxies for Confucian culture and accounting conservatism. Furthermore, our main conclusions still stand after using the instrumental variable (IV) two-stage regression method and the differential model approach to address the endogeneity issue. Lastly, the positive effect of Confucian culture on accounting conservatism is only valid for non-BIG4-audited firms, firms with lower managerial ownership, and firms in highly competitive industries.