Do High-Speed Railway Inhibit Earnings Management?

The opening of the high-speed railway has made a huge difference on China’s economy and society. A series of studies on its macroeconomic consequences have been carried out, but not enough attention has been paid to corporate governance. Based on the natural experimental background of the high-speed railway opening in 2008, this paper took the China’s a-share listed companies from 2005 to 2021 as the research samples, and conducted an DID model to test the relationship between the high-speed railway and earnings management. It found that the opening of high-speed railway significantly inhibited the earnings management of listed companies, and the effect was stronger in prefecture-level cities than in cities at or above the sub-provincial level. This paper also discusses the internal mechanism of the effect of high-speed railway opening on earnings management, and found that the opening of high-speed railway can further affect earnings management through information transparency. This study not only enriches the research in corporate finance and other related fields, but also has practical significance for the effective supervision of regulatory authorities and rational decision-making of investors.