An Empirical Research On The Effect Of The Characteristics Of The Secretary Of The Board Of Directors On Information Disclosure Quality

Since 1990, Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges established, China's listed companies began to disclose accounting information officially. Accounting information disclosure quality of listed companies, to a large extent, affected the efficiency of securities markets, but the quality problem exist in current accounting information disclosure of listed companies in China t has become a major factor to obstacle the development of China's securities market. It is lack of confidence to investors so that the allocation of resources will be inefficient or unreasonable, and it has seriously affected the function of China's securities market to play. Secretary to the board in corporate governance system is an important part, and it related to the company's information disclosure quality. But a long time, the role that secretary of the board in improving quality of information disclosure has been overlooked. Therefore, study the influnce of board secretary to the quality of information disclosure of listed companies in China and seek measures for governance, has very important theoretical and practical significance.The most direct role of secretary of the board to corporate governance is the information disclosure. In 1993, Shenzhen People's Congress enacted the "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Company Act", secretary of the board system set up for the first time; At December 1997, the CSRC issued the "Guidelines on Articles of Association of Listed Companies", the requirement that all listed companies must be equipped with secretary of the board, the system of Secretary to the Board of Directors of Listed Companies to be formally established. At August 1996, the Shanghai Stock Exchange issued the "Shanghai Stock Exchange listed company secretary of the board management approach", in particular, that the secretary of the board to assist the Board in the exercise of authority in compliance with national legal systems and articles of association. In 2004, the Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchange, issued the revised version of the "Stock Listing Rules", and it also emphasized the oversight responsibilities of secretary of the board of directors to the company's governance. This reference to China Securities Regulatory Commission by strengthening the the role of the secretary of the board in listed companies information disclosure to improve corporate governance and policy guidance, study the influence on the characteristics of the secretary of the board to the information disclosure quality , in order to improve the quality of information disclosure, to provide experience evidence for improvement of corporate governance ,and to provide ideas and suggestions to the state supervision of listed companies.The part of empirical research, considering China's current situation, use the experience data of Shenzhen stock market and Logistic regression model to analysis 2005-2007, 949 samples company, found that: Secretary of the board of listed companies has large age differences, education level is generally high, concurrently in other executive positions or the board secretary with financial experience relevant to the position before serving quite common. Secretary to the board on the quality of information disclosure characteristic variables have some explanatory power. The higher level education of secretary to the board, the more help to improve the quality of information disclosure. The age of secretary to the board, and relevant financial experience, concurrently in other executive positions impact on the quality of information disclosure variable in line with expectations, but the coefficient is not significant. On the one hand, this may be missing the variables of professional ethics and reputation of the secretary of the board to measure, and the other side may also reflect China's information disclosure system and the board secretary of the system is not perfect.