Abstract
Infrastructure constructions promote the flow of production factors across regions and improve the information environment of the region. This paper investigates the impact of infrastructure construction, proxy as the opening of high-speed railway (HSR), on corporate cost stickiness. The results show that the opening of HSR is beneficial to decreasing corporate cost stickiness, and this positive impact is robust after IV estimations and placebo test. Moreover, we find some evidence that the opening of HSR can promote the frequency and quality of analysts’ survey, and improved the corporate information environment. Further analyses show that the positive impact of HSR on corporate cost stickiness is more pronounced for firms with serious information asymmetry and weaker corporate governance. Then after the effect of the HSR on stickiness of different type corporate cost was tested, the results showed that the impact of the opening of HSR on corporate cost stickiness mainly exists in manager perks and salary-welfare. Based on the introduction of HSR, our findings clarify and highlight the role of infrastructure construction on corporate asymmetric cost management behavior.
