We study the impact of government-led incentive systems by examining a staggered reform in the Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) performance evaluation policy. To improve capital allocative efficiency, in 2010, regulators switched from using return on equity (ROE) to economic value added...

We study the impact of government-led incentive systems by examining a staggered reform in the Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) performance evaluation policy. To improve capital allocative efficiency, in 2010, regulators switched from using return on equity (ROE) to economic value added...

The q-theory of asset pricing predicts a negative relation between a firm's investment and its future stock returns, and the negative relation is stronger among firms with higher investment frictions. These predictions arise from each firm's decision. Therefore, testing it does not require that...