资本市场资料跟法律发展：中国事例（pdf34）.pdfVIP

Capital Markets and Legal Development: the China Case By Zhiwu Chen Yale School of Management September 12, 2003 Abstract Recent research establishes a significant positive correlation between law and finance (and hence economic growth), re-starting a debate on the “law matters” thesis. However, which way the causality goes is still not clear. The purpose of this paper is to use the on- going reform experience of China, especially its capital market experience, to examine the direction of causality. First, we show that China’s recent experience is largely consistent with Coffees (200 1) crash-then-law interpretation of this correlation. Indeed, it is the large and clearly defined constituency of investors that has been a key driving force behind much of the recent legal progress. The rights and economic interests of this constituency have fundamentally challenged the traditional emphasis of the Chinese legal culture on administrative and criminal sanctions, but not on civil litigation law. Second, we compare the different contributions to legal change made by the stock market and the consumer product markets. We argue that capital markets are perhaps the most conducive to the formation of a politically powerful constituency and hence more aggressive legal change, because of (1) the higher degree of commonality among interested parties and (2) immediately measurable and tangible damages. These two characteristics not only allow investors to identify with each other more easily, but also create an ideal basis for more debate in the media, which in turn promotes the development of a legal culture. Key words: law and finance, legal reform, shareholder rights, product liability, capital market development, econom