On May 25, 2023, the HRUG regular seminar on “(In) Visibility of Political Connections” was successfully held. The meeting was shared and reported by Dr. Yi Li of Business School, Central South University. Peter Herrmann (Professor of Central South University Human Rights Centre, China), Mehmet Okyayuz (Professor of Middle East Technical University, Ankara/Turkey), Peter Szynka (Interim Professor of the University for Applied Sciences of Hannover, Germany), Juan Li (Associate Professor of Central South University Human Rights Centre, China), Theophilus Edwin Coleman (Postdoctoral researcher of University of Johannesburg, South Africa), Betül Gökhan (Research assistant of Middle East Technical University, Ankara/Turkey), and Zeynep Deniz Şen, (PhD student of Middle East Technical University, Ankara/Turkey), participated and discussed.
Dr. Yi Li noted that recent research has shown that non-disclosure can potentially improve stock price informativeness by encouraging investors to acquire and produce information. A study on whether, in the absence of disclosure, investors can privately acquire information on firms’ political connections found that, on average, investors are not aware that the firms in which they have invested are connected to the investigated officials, suggesting a lack of visibility of the connections. However, a small number of institutional investors know about the connections and sell their shares in response to the investigations. It is clear from both interviews and archival-based analyses that high information acquisition costs and analysts’ lack of incentives to disseminate sensitive information they acquire contribute to this lack of visibility.
Finally, Dr Li Yi argues that the study contributes to the debate on mandating disclosure of political connections by highlighting the importance of investors’ ability to privately acquire relevant information on political connections.
2023年5月25日，HRUG定期研讨会之“政治关联的（不）可见性”主题会议顺利召开。本次讨论由中南大学商学院李祎博士进行分享汇报，中南大学人权研究中心研究员Peter Herrmann教授、土耳其中东科技大学政治学Mehmet Okyayuz教授、德国汉诺威应用科技大学Peter Szynka教授、中南大学人权研究中心研究员黎娟副教授、南非约翰内斯堡大学博士后研究员Theophilus Edwin Coleman、土耳其中东科技大学研究助理Betül Gökhan和土耳其中东科技大学博士生Zeynep Deniz Şen参加并进行讨论。
李祎博士指出，最近的研究表明，不披露可以通过鼓励投资者获取和生产信息，潜在地提高股价信息含量。对“在没有披露信息的情况下投资者是否可以私下获取有关公司政治关联的信息”进行研究，结果表明，平均而言，在反腐败调查的背景下，投资者并不知道他们所投资的公司与被调查的官员存在关联。由此可见，政治关联缺乏可见性。然而，只有少数投资机构的投资者知道这种关联，并在调查后抛售股票。通过访谈和对既有文献的分析可知，高昂的信息获取成本以及分析师缺乏获取敏感信息的能力，都是造成政治关联缺乏可见性的原因。
最后，李祎博士认为研究通过强调投资者获取公司的政治关联相关信息的能力的重要性，对有关强制披露政治关联的研究带来了一定的积极影响。