Industrial policy and asset prices: Evidence from the Made in China 2025 policy

We study the link between industrial policy and asset prices by using the Made in China 2025 industrial policy, announced in May 2015, as an external shock. We track Chinese firms and U.S. firms in ten high-tech industries targeted by the policy. In the short run, stock prices, measured by cumulative abnormal returns (CARs), increase significantly for both Chinese and U.S. firms, by 9.9% and 1.4%, respectively. However, in the long run, Chinese firms’ CARs drop heavily, while U.S. firms’ CARs continually increase. We further find that after the policy announcement, Chinese firms’ profitability declines dramatically by an average of 52.9% and firms’ leverage increase significantly, but they do not receive additional government subsidies. We conclude that the policy only boosts market reaction in the short run but does not promote targeted industries longer term.