The US Securities and Exchange Commission implemented Exchange Act Rule 12h-6 in 2007, which made it considerably easier for cross-listed firms in the US market to deregister and terminate their regulatory obligations as US exchange listings. Using a difference-in-differences research design, we predict and find that in the period after the implementation of Rule 12h-6, cross-listed firms have significantly less innovation than non-cross-listed domestic firms, which suggests that Rule 12h-6 impedes innovation in cross-listed firms. This effect is stronger for firms that rely more on external financing, have high R&D intensity, and face greater financial constraints. It is also more pronounced in countries with low investor protection, low regulatory quality, greater differences with the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and less liberalized stock markets. The results of the channel analyses indicate that cross-listed firms experience lower sensitivity of R&D investment to stock price and a decrease in foreign institutional ownership in the post Rule 12h-6 implementation period. Taken together, our findings suggest that Rule 12h-6 reduces the benefits of cross-listing for foreign investors, which hinders innovation in non-US economies.

中文翻译：

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放松监管要求对企业创新的影响：来自 SEC 规则 12h-6 的证据


美国证券交易委员会于 2007 年实施了《交易法》第 12h-6 条，这使得在美国市场交叉上市的公司更容易注销并终止其在美国交易所上市的监管义务。采用双重差分研究设计，我们预测并发现，在规则12h-6实施后的一段时间内，交叉上市公司的创新明显低于非交叉上市的国内公司，这表明规则12h- 6 阻碍交叉上市公司的创新。对于外部融资依赖程度较高、研发强度较高、财务约束较大的企业，这种效应更为明显。在投资者保护程度低、监管质量低、与美国公认会计准则差异较大以及股票市场自由化程度较低的国家中，这种现象也更为明显。渠道分析的结果表明，在12h-6规则实施后，交叉上市公司的研发投资对股价的敏感性较低，外国机构持股量也有所下降。综上所述，我们的研究结果表明，12h-6 规则减少了外国投资者交叉上市的好处，从而阻碍了非美国经济体的创新。