Dose Regulatory Uncertainty Affect Corporate Financialization? Based on the Perspective of the Changes of CSRC's Chairman

Based on the perspective of the changes of CSRC's chairman, this paper investigates the relationship between regulatory uncertainty and corporate financialization. We find that the regulatory uncertainty positively affects corporate financialization through increasing firms' financialization motivation. Specifically, both the decline of regulatory policy continuity and regulatory intensity caused by changes of CSRC's chairman improve corporate financialization. The positive relationship between regulatory uncertainty and corporate financialization is more pronounced in non-state-owned firms and firms in non-strategic emerging industries. These findings have implications for listed firms and policy-makers to prevent firms transforming from substantial to fictitious.