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现有对中国企业成本粘性的实证研究普遍使用上市公司财务数据。使用此类数据衡量的成本变动在反映真实成本性态的同时,还会受到管理层盈余操纵行为的影响。本文提出,现有研究由于忽略后者对披露成本变动的影响,所得到的成本粘性的估计很可能存在系统性偏差,特别是当企业面临亏损时管理层往往采用“洗大澡”式的盈余管理,造成与业务量下降相对应的成本下降幅度减小,从而造成使用基于传统模型估计出的成本粘性参数高于真实的成本粘性。本文在理论分析的基础上对估计成本粘性的经验模型进行了改进,使用1994—2008年间中国上市公司样本对上述假设进行了实证检验。我们发现,在考虑了“洗大澡”因素的影响后,估计得出的“管理费用”的粘性参数下降了超过三分之二,而“销售费用”的粘性则基本消失。其他稳健性检验结果也支持以上结论。综合而言,本文的分析表明,忽略盈余管理的因素的确造成了对中国上市公司成本粘性的普遍严重高估。
The current empirical research on the stickiness of Chinese companies’ costs generally uses the financial data of listed companies. The cost changes measured using such data will also be influenced by the management surplus management behavior while reflecting the true cost behavior. This paper proposes that due to the neglect of the latter’s influence on the changes in disclosure costs, the existing research may have systemic deviations from the estimates of cost stickiness. In particular, when management is facing losses, management often adopts a “big shower” approach. Earnings management results in a decrease in the cost reduction corresponding to a decline in the volume of business, resulting in the use of a cost stickiness parameter estimated based on a traditional model that is higher than the true cost stickiness. On the basis of theoretical analysis, this paper improves the empirical model for estimating cost stickiness, and uses the sample of Chinese listed companies from 1994 to 2008 to empirically test the above hypothesis. We have found that after considering the influence of the “big bath” factor, the estimated “administrative cost” has dropped by more than two-thirds of the sticky parameter, while the “sales cost” stickiness is basically disappear. Other robustness test results also support the above conclusions. Taken together, the analysis in this paper shows that ignoring the earnings management factors does cause a generally serious overvaluation of the stickiness of Chinese listed companies’ costs.