Abstract: Against the backdrop of the frequent use of export controls by the United States and its ongoing sanctions against Chinese enterprises, it is of great significance to study the impact of US export controls on the idiosyncratic risks of Chinese firms. Taking Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2022 as research objects, and incorporating the entity list from the US Export Administration Regulations, this study employs a multi-period difference-in-differences model to investigate the impact of U.S. export controls on the idiosyncratic risk of Chinese firms. The findings show that after being impacted by US export controls on China, Chinese companies have effectively reduced their idiosyncratic risks through active strategic adjustments. This conclusion still holds true after endogeneity analysis and a series of robustness tests. Further analysis reveals that this effect is more significant in core regulated industries, enterprises that have not engaged in overseas business, and after adjusting the intensity of US export control policies. The mechanism analysis shows that in the face of US export controls on China, companies actively improve their information environment by optimizing risk disclosure strategies, reducing earnings management, and enhancing their performance in environmental, social responsibility, and corporate governance aspects, thereby reducing their specific risks. Meanwhile, the improvement of the information environment helps to enhance the accuracy of analysts' predictions, reduce prediction errors and discrepancies. Based on the research findings, government departments can maintain capital market stability by improving external risk disclosure mechanisms, strengthening financial and accounting supervision, and improving environmental and social governance systems.

Key words: export control, entity list, characteristic risk, information environment, informed trading