会计信息可比性与高管薪酬契约有效性

会计信息在高管激励契约中的作用历来是理论与实务中关注的重要问题。本文以2006～2016年我国上市公司为对象,研究会计信息可比性与高管薪酬契约有效性之间的关系,结果发现,会计信息可比性与公司高管薪酬-业绩敏感度之间存在显著正相关关系。与国有企业相比,会计信息可比性对薪酬契约有效性的影响在非国有企业中更为显著。进一步分析发现,会计信息可比性与高管薪酬-业绩敏感度之间的正相关关系在信息复杂程度较高、内部控制质量较差、外部监督较弱的企业中更为显著。总体而言,本文的研究结果表明会计信息可比性特征对薪酬契约有效性具有重要影响。     

董事网络、独立董事治理与高管激励

独立董事的治理行为受到所处社会网络的影响。基于"董事在董事会同时任职的直接或间接联结关系"而形成的董事网络,本文利用社会网络分析方法检验了独立董事的网络特征对其发挥在促进高管激励有效性影响中的作用机理。结果发现:公司独立董事网络中心度越高,高管薪酬-业绩敏感性越强;与非国有上市公司相比,国有上市公司中独立董事网络中心度与高管薪酬-业绩敏感性的正相关关系更弱;进一步研究发现,用独立董事网络中心度解释的高管薪酬部分对未来业绩有促进作用。结论丰富了"网络和治理"研究的证据。     

管理层权力与薪酬业绩敏感性关系研究——以中国民营上市公司为例

本文利用我国民营上市公司2007-2010年的经验数据,实证检验了管理层权力与薪酬业绩敏感性之间的关系.研究表明,对民营上市公司而言,管理层权力越大,自定薪酬的动机越强;民营上市公司管理层权力与薪酬业绩敏感性表现出与国有上市公司的同质化,即管理层权力越大,薪酬与盈利业绩的敏感度越高,与亏损业绩的敏感度越低.管理层的权力寻租行为削弱了自身的薪酬风险,薪酬契约包含了无激励价值的权力租金,导致了薪酬激励过度和薪酬契约的“真空化”.研究还发现,民营上市公司所处地区的市场化程度会削弱管理层权力在薪酬契约制定中的寻租动机,降低管理层的薪酬.     

过度自信、风险厌恶与我国上市公司经理薪酬激励

经理风险厌恶会增加股东使用业绩薪酬激励的成本,然而通过对我国上市公司高管的经验研究发现,如果经理过度自信,则会减弱风险厌恶带来的负面影响,表现为其薪酬中的报酬业绩敏感度更高,且其与风险之间的负相关关系减弱。同时研究还发现,非系统风险所占总风险比重较大的公司,相比系统风险所占比重较大的公司,会给予过度自信的高管更高的报酬业绩敏感度,这意味着高管的过度自信主要源于其对公司非系统风险认知的偏差。     

政府补助、超额薪酬与薪酬辩护

本文以我国上市公司2008-2011年的数据为样本,通过考察政府补助这一外生变量对高管超额薪酬以及薪酬-业绩敏感性的影响,检验高管薪酬契约的有效性。结果发现,经理人利用政府补助获得超额薪酬,谋取私利;并且经理人还通过提高薪酬-业绩敏感性,为其超额薪酬进行结果正当性辩护,以掩盖其自利的行为。上述研究显示,简单地将薪酬与业绩挂钩的契约会受到业绩噪音的影响,降低契约激励经理人努力的效应,这为我国进一步完善薪酬契约提供了新的经验证据。     

上市公司高级管理层报酬业绩敏感度与风险之间关系的实证检验

本文以中国上市公司2002-2004年度的高管人员报酬数据为基础,对高管人员的报酬业绩敏感度与风险之间的关系进行了实证分析。结果表明,中国上市公司高管人员的报酬与公司绩效、股东财富存在正相关关系,其报酬业绩敏感度与风险之间如经典代理理论所预测的那样存在负相关关系,但显著性较弱。进一步分析发现,对于那些增长机会很小或没有增长机会的公司,报酬业绩敏感度与风险存在负相关关系,而对于那些增长机会大的公司,报酬业绩敏感度与风险之间存在正相关关系,这在一定程度上拓展了经典代理理论的预测。     

企业并购影响高管薪酬业绩敏感性吗?——基于中国国有上市公司的实证分析

本文以中国沪深股市2006-2010年间作为买方发生并购行为的362个国有上市公司为研究对象,分析了公司并购行为对高管薪酬与公司业绩的敏感度的影响。研究发现,公司资产回报率、市场回报率与公司高管薪酬显著正相关。说明并购前,高管薪酬与资产回报率以及市场回报率显著正相关,即高管薪酬与公司业绩敏感度较高。并购所增加的会计业绩和市场业绩与高管薪酬在10%的水平下显著负相关。可见,企业并购显著降低了高管薪酬与公司资产回报率以及市场回报率的业绩敏感度。并购规模无论是通过会计绩效还是市场绩效检验分析,都显著与高管薪酬正相关,说明高管薪酬与并购规模的扩大显著正相关。为进一步分析并购绩效是否会影响高管薪酬变动,本文采用差分模型分析了高管薪酬变化值与并购业绩变化值和并购规模变化的关系,研究发现,高管薪酬的变化与并购绩效无显著的相关关系,而与并购增加的公司规模显著正相关。     

员工持股计划与薪酬粘性差距

本文以2011-2017年全部A股上市公司为研究样本,考察员工持股计划对公司员工的薪酬-业绩敏感性、薪酬粘性与高管-员工薪酬粘性差距的影响。研究发现,员工持股计划显著增强了我国上市公司员工薪酬-业绩敏感性与薪酬粘性,显著缩小了高管-员工薪酬粘性差距,进一步研究还发现在高管权力较弱或成长性较低的公司,员工持股计划的作用会更为明显。研究结果表明员工持股计划有效缓解了公司内部薪酬分配规则的不公平问题,支持了员工持股计划的心理所有权理论,员工持股计划促进了员工的股东身份认同感,增强了员工在薪酬谈判中的议价能力,实现了员工从"被动接受"到"主动争取"的角色转变,从而减少高管自利操纵行为,有助于改善公司治理。     

央企上市公司高管薪酬与分红、经营业绩的研究

文章基于央企上市公司高管薪酬改革的视角,选取2010~2014年我国央企上市公司及其控股子公司的数据,对高管薪酬与分红、经营业绩之间的关系进行实证研究。研究结果发现,央企上市公司的分红、高管持股比例以及企业规模对高管薪酬有正相关关系,其中企业分红对高管薪酬有着显著的正相关关系,经营业绩也在一定程度上影响着高管薪酬,对其有不显著的正相关关系。     

媒体报道与高管薪酬契约有效性

本文利用2003-2011年中国A股上市公司11567个年度观察样本数据,实证检验了媒体报道对公司高管薪酬契约有效性的影响关系,并进一步考察这一影响关系在不同产权性质公司中和不同制度环境下的差异。结果发现:(1)媒体报道水平与高管的薪酬-业绩敏感性之间存在显著的正向影响关系,说明媒体报道提高了高管薪酬契约有效性。(2)区分产权性质后发现,媒体报道的上述正向影响作用仅在国有上市公司样本才显著成立,意味着媒体报道主要提高了国有企业高管的薪酬契约有效性。(3)上市公司所处地区的制度环境水平越高,媒体报道的上述正向影响作用越强,表明制度环境是媒体报道有效发挥上述作用的重要条件。     

Customer prospects and pay-performance sensitivity: Evidence from Korea

This paper examines how business prospects in customer firms affect executive pay-performance sensitivity in supplier firms. Using Korean Input-Output Accounts Data and Business Confidence Index published by the Bank of Korea, I find that customer prospects are positively associated with executive pay-performance sensitivity and the association is extended to the components of performance in a way that encourages managers to better exploit the market opportunities. The positive association is more pronounced when the inter-industry data are more informative, when the firm belongs to a more competitive industry, and when the corporate governance is stronger.Data availabilityAll data are publicly available from sources identified in the text.     

Executive incentives and payout policy: Empirical evidence from Europe

We investigate how corporate payout policy is influenced by executive incentives, i.e. stock and option holdings, stock option deltas and stock-based pay-performance sensitivity for 1,650 publicly listed firms from the UK, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, over the period from 2002 to 2009. Our results show that executive stock option holdings and stock option deltas are associated with lower dividend payments in our sample of European countries, where we do not observe any presence of dividend protection for executive stock options. We find that this relationship is mainly driven by exercisable stock options and by options that are in the money. Additionally, we observe that executive stock option holdings and stock option deltas have a negative impact on total payout, suggesting that executives do not substitute share repurchases for dividends. Furthermore, the fraction of share repurchases in total payout increases as executive stock option holdings and stock option deltas increase. Finally, our results show that executive share ownership and stock-based pay-performance sensitivity may mitigate agency conflicts by significantly increasing the level of total payout.     

Executive compensation and conflict between shareholders and creditors: Evidence from creditor litigation

Using creditor litigation data from China, we investigate whether creditors can participate in corporate governance when agency conflict between shareholders and creditors is severe. By comparing firms that have experienced creditor lawsuits (litigation firms) with those that have not (non-litigation firms), we find that litigation firms have lower pay-performance sensitivity before lawsuits, suggesting that these firms have weaker corporate governance. This result is consistent with our expectation that creditors participate in corporate governance by introducing external monitoring when internal monitoring, dominated by shareholders, is insufficient. We also find that the association is stronger for firms with more severe shareholder-creditor agency conflict. Moreover, creditor litigation is strongly related to low pay-performance sensitivity when the external legal environment is strong. Our results remain robust to different model specifications and after addressing endogeneity problems.     

Non-compensation-related consultant service and CEO compensation

This study examines how consultants’ non-compensation-related consulting service (NCS) affects the contractual usefulness of accounting and stock information in executive compensation, as reflected in pay-performance sensitivity. The hypothesis is based on anecdotal evidence suggesting that consultants’ provision of NCS is likely to adversely affect the quality of CEO compensation plans. We investigate whether the consultants providing NCS are involved in potential conflicts of interest. The results show that CEO pay is higher in companies where consultants provide NCS and have a higher NCS fee ratio. The pay-performance sensitivity in CEO compensation decreases when consultants engage in NCS. The overall results are consistent with NCS representing a conflict of interest and compromising the quality of compensation committees.     

Is Innovativeness a Link between Pay and Performance?

The relationship between innovativeness and pay-performance sensitivity is theoretically ambiguous because innovative activities simultaneously enhance the productivity of executives in creating shareholder value (productivity effect) and increase the volatility of the firm's performance (volatility effect). The empirical findings from the pooled sample suggest that innovativeness and executive pay-performance sensitivity are inversely related. The extent to which the volatility effect outweighed the productivity effect was especially pronounced during the 2000-2003 market crash period. While the productivity effect is stronger than the volatility effect in both the CEO and low-free-cash-flow subsamples, the volatility effect is stronger than the productivity effect in both the non-CEO and high-free-cash-flow subsamples.     

Birds of a feather: Value implications of political alignment between top management and directors

For 2,695 US corporations from 1996 to 2009, we find that alignment in political orientation between the chief executive officer (CEO) and independent directors is associated with lower firm valuations, lower operating profitability, and increased internal agency conflicts such as a reduced likelihood of dismissing poorly performing CEOs, a lower CEO pay-performance sensitivity, and a greater likelihood of accounting fraud. Importantly, we show that our results are driven neither by the effects associated with various measures of similarity and diversity within the board nor the effects of local director labor market and political conditions on board structure. We provide evidence that our measure of individual political orientation reflects the person?s political beliefs rather than opportunistic attempts to seek political favor. Overall, our results suggest that diversity in political beliefs among corporate board members is valuable.     

Do corporate governance characteristics influence tax management?

This paper investigates how corporate governance plays a role in long-run tax management and contributes to the existing literature in several ways. First, we add insight into the horizon problems related to executive and director compensation and show that incentive compensation provides long-term incentives to improve performance by establishing a link between higher pay-performance sensitivity and lower taxes. Second, this is one of the first papers, to our knowledge, to empirically examine the role of governance in corporate tax management from a long-term perspective in order to better understand the lasting effects of governance. We find that incentive compensation drives managers to make investments into longer-horizon pay outs such as tax management. Furthermore, we find that this investment into tax management benefits shareholders; better tax management is positively related to higher returns to shareholders. We also address the endogeneity issues of corporate governance and performance measures. Finally, our paper is unique in examining which type of tax management strategy (domestic or foreign) different firms focus on. Our results shed light into how governance can improve firm performance and increase shareholder value in the long run.     

Controlling shareholders’ tunneling and executive compensation: Evidence from China

Conflict of interests between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders could affect executive compensation contracts. In this paper, we use data on Chinese listed companies and show that controlling shareholders’ tunneling reduces the pay-performance sensitivity of executive compensation. These results suggest that while incentive payment schemes are generally adopted in Chinese listed companies, controlling shareholders who obtain private benefits from listed companies have less incentive to strengthen the relationship between executive pay and firm performance.     

COMPENSATION CONTRACTS OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS: DETERMINANTS OF PAY-PERFORMANCE SENSITIVITY

Compensation contracts of chief executive officers of large firms typically provide for a low linkage between compensation and stock performance. We test predictions of various theoretical models of managerial behavior using pay-performance sensitivity measures. We find that even though the sensitivity measures are low on average, they vary cross-sectionally, in a manner broadly consistent with predictions from the literature on efficient contracting.     

The effect of financial reporting quality on CEO compensation structure: Evidence from accounting comparability

This study examines the effect of accounting comparability on the design of CEO compensation structure. After controlling for firm-specific attributes, we find that accounting comparability is positively associated with CEO equity-based compensation intensity and pay-performance sensitivity. This suggests that the improved comparability increases the usefulness of equity-based compensation and a firm is willing to offer more equity-based compensation contracts to CEOs and increase their pay-performance sensitivity. Further, we find that the impact of comparability on the CEO’s compensation contract increases with information asymmetry, which is consistent with the notion that accounting comparability is a quality of financial reporting that facilitates the use of equity-based compensation in a poor information environment. Our analysis also reveals that the effect of accounting comparability on CEO compensation structure is greater when a firm’s corporate governance is strong, consistent with the complementary relation between comparability and the exiting corporate governance in determining CEO compensation schemes. Overall, our evidence suggests that firms utilize more equity-based compensation as a proportion of total compensation under greater accounting comparability and enhance the alignment between equity-based compensation and firm performance.