Chen, Harris, Li, and Wu (2015) investigate the economic benefit of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) filings in China. They aim to investigate how XBRL in China affects the cost of equity capital (CEC). Starting in 2004, the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) mandated that Chinese-listed firms report their financial statement data using XBRL, which provides us with sufficient data to examine the long- and short-term effectiveness of the XBRL mandate. In addition, Chinese-listed firms operate in a weaker investor-protection environment. Such a weak information environment makes it unclear how the XBRL mandate achieves its intended benefits. Moreover, China has a unique business ownership structure, with many state-owned enterprises (SOEs). SOEs have different policies and greater resources than non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs). As such, the implementation of XBRL on the cost of equity capital (CEC) may be different for SOEs and NSOEs. Chen, Harris, Li, and Wu (2015; hereafter, CHLW)...
