【主讲人】肖潇 助理教授
【主持人】高明 长聘副教授
【报告题目】Financial Knowledge and Financial Policy Preferences: Evidence from Entrepreneurs in China

【报告摘要】Financial inclusion programs launched by international organizations have emphasized the importance of financial knowledge for the success of enterprises. Yet empirical evidence on the role of financial knowledge in a business environment is limited, which is primarily due to data availability. Taking advantage of a survey covering a group of entrepreneurs of small businesses in China, we show that better financially literate entrepreneurs prefer to hold more cash and maintain lower leverages. These entrepreneurs also exhibit a stronger (weaker) preference for financing through retained earnings and external financing sources (owners' own funds). Our results remain unchanged after controlling for entrepreneurs' risk preference, time preference and optimism toward future performance. The results of tests using transaction data indicate that enterprises with better financially literate entrepreneurs make higher sales and have lower reduction in average sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, we provide novel evidence on the role of financial literacy in shaping entrepreneurs' financial policy preferences.

【主讲人介绍】肖潇现任北京大学光华管理学院助理教授。她先后于北京大学光华管理学院、国家发展研究院和威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校取得学士、硕士和博士学位，研究领域包括资本市场监管、会计信息披露、金融知识对个体及企业的影响、公司财务以及审计等，研究成果发表于《会计研究》《经济学报》《金融学季刊》和Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory、Journal of Financial Markets、Economics Letters、Sociological Science等国内外知名学术期刊。