Abstract: As a typical informal system, trust is an important social capital that affects economic and social progress at the macro level. It also has a positive effect on corporate behavior at the micro level, and the trust mechanism has a crucial impact on the process of corporate losses reversal. Based on the empirical data of China′s Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share loss listed companies in 2008-2016, this paper examines the impact of social trust on the performance of corporate losses reversal and its mechanism. The study finds that social trust can significantly improve the performance of corporate losses reversal, that is, the higher the level of regional social trust, the higher the performance of corporate losses reversal. Further research finds that social trust has a heterogeneous effect on the performance of corporate losses reversal, that is, the promotion of social trust to the performance of corporate losses reversal is mainly reflected in non-state-owned corporates, corporates in regions with a high degree of marketization, corporates with large shareholders increasing holdings, and corporates with institutional investors increasing holdings. After investigating the transmission path, it is found that social trust can improve the performance of corporate losses reversal by reducing the degree of information asymmetry. This paper examines the economic consequences of social trust, and its research conclusions have implications for management and policy for corporates and local governments living in the network formed by social trust.

Key words: social trust, loss corporate, performance of corporate losses reversal, nature of property right, degree of marketization, corporate governance