The Influence Of Timeliness Of Information Disclosure On Information Asymmetry And Equity Capital Cost

At present, in our country most listed companies published the annual report in March or April, even some chose the end of April. Obviously annual report delay lag phenomenon in our country was serious. And the low level of the timeliness of information disclosure could bring more opportunities to information leakage, and there would be a negative effect for the information disclosure and the efficiency of capital market in China. Thus, it was necessary to study the problem of information disclosure. In term of theory, academics had less attention on the relationship between the timeliness of the information disclosure and the capital cost, and the relationship between the timeliness of the information disclosure and information asymmetry. And the research could make up the blank of research theory and contribute to the construction of information disclosure system. In a word, it had both practical significance, and theoretical significance.Based on annual report data of the2007-2012A-share listed companies, it used time lag of the annual report and lag coefficient as substitution variables of the timeliness of annual report. It selected the volatility of stock returns to measure information asymmetry, and chose the EP ratio to measure the cost of equity. At the same time, it chose the research method of combining the normative analysis and empirical test (ordinary least squares method and two-stage least squares method). We could obtain these following empirical conclusions:(1) The level of timeliness of listed companies in our country is not high, which seriously affects the efficiency of securities market in China;(2) The relationship between the timeliness of the information disclosure and information asymmetry mainly was not significantly positive correlation. The timeliness of information disclosure was significantly negatively related to the cost of equity significantly. These suggested that the timeliness of listed company in our country had no effect on information asymmetry in our securities market; and the higher level of the timeliness of our country listed company, the lower the cost of equity.Based on these, we gave some policy suggestions:First of all, we should make sure the role of the timeliness of information disclosure in the securities market. Secondly, when considered the effectiveness of the securities market in China, we improved the level of the timeliness of information disclosure. Based on the view of the government, the listed companies, intermediaries and investors specific, suggestions are presented:(1)As a government, first of all, they should speed up the construction of a sound system of securities regulation laws and regulations, and increase the risk of a violation of the law; Second, they should step up efforts in supervising the securities and futures commission; Finally, they should encourage to develop institutional investors and improve the structure of the investors;(2) From the perspective of listed companies, they should perfect the governance structure of listed companies in our country;(3) As investors, they should consciously improve rational investment ideas, improve their professional quality and enhance the consciousness;(4)From the intermediary institutions, they should strengthen the construction of China’s securities self-discipline organization, promote independence and professional operation of self-discipline organizations such as stock exchange and the securities company, and regulate their behavior.