On November 2021, a paper by Shen Jianghua (first author), Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting/Accounting Development Research Center, Xiamen University and two other collaborators. "The unintended consequence of financial statement comparability: evidence from managerial learning practices "is available online at Accounting and Finance.

Abstract of the paper

Comparable financial disclosure has well-known benefits but also unintended consequences. This study identifies one unintended consequence of managerial learning. For a large sample of Chinese companies, we find that investment-to-price sensitivity declines with financial statement comparability, indicating that comparability discourages managers from learning from prices. Consistent with the learning explanation, this negative relation is stronger for growth firms and for firms operating in more concentrated industries, where managers rely more on market prices for their investment decisions. We further find a decrease in firm value for these two groups of firms. Overall, we document a negative real effect of comparability.

Introduction of the author

Shen Jianghua studied at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics from 2007 to 2011 and obtained a Bachelor's degree in Finance; Lingnan University (Hong Kong) from 2011 to 2013 and obtained MPhil in Finance; and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from 2013 to 2018 and obtained a Doctor's degree in Accounting. Since September 2018, he has been working as an assistant professor in the Department of Accounting, School of Management, Xiamen University. His research interests include information disclosure, corporate governance and capital markets. Courses taught include accounting principles, accounting and audit research methods, measurement techniques and statistical methods, investment, etc. His research papers have been published in academic journals such as Review of Accounting Studies. Among them, The paper "The unintended benefit of the risk factor mandate of 2005", published in the Review of Accounting Studies, was awarded at the MIT Asia Conference in Accounting, Best Paper Award, First Place.