Managerial Stock Ownership and the Maturity Structure of Corporate Debt

This study documents that managerial stock ownership plays an important role in determining corporate debt maturity. Controlling for previously identified determinants of debt maturity and modeling leverage and debt maturity as jointly endogenous, we document a significant and robust inverse relation between managerial stock ownership and corporate debt maturity. We also show that managerial stock ownership influences the relation between credit quality and debt maturity and between growth opportunities and debt maturity.     

Role of Managerial Incentives and Discretion in Hedge Fund Performance

Using a comprehensive hedge fund database, we examine the role of managerial incentives and discretion in hedge fund performance. Hedge funds with greater managerial incentives, proxied by the delta of the option-like incentive fee contracts, higher levels of managerial ownership, and the inclusion of high-water mark provisions in the incentive contracts, are associated with superior performance. The incentive fee percentage rate by itself does not explain performance. We also find that funds with a higher degree of managerial discretion, proxied by longer lockup, notice, and redemption periods, deliver superior performance. These results are robust to using alternative performance measures and controlling for different data-related biases.     

Managerial Incentives in a Stock Market Economy

This study presents an analysis of the managerial incentive problem in a stock market economy in which incentive contracts are structured in terms of security ownership. In our model, the manager's ownership share signals effort and is determined endogenously as the solution to a special portfolio decision problem. Managerial investment in the firm is evaluated under various security pricing arrangements. Our analysis indicates that, in general, stockholders should sell shares to a manager at a discount to ensure a Pareto efficient ownership (incentive) structure. However, efficient pricing (discount) schedules generally are nonlinear and, in many respects, isomorphic to discriminating price functions which have been considered in neoclassical models of monopoly.     

Foreign Acquisitions and Managerial Discretion

Foreign acquisitions have been growingdramatically since the 1980s despite academic studiesshowing that shareholders of acquirers generally donot realize any significant gain. In this paper, weinvestigate whether foreign acquisitions aremotivated by managerial self-interest. Logisticregressions are performed to establish a link betweenforeign acquisitions and the acquirer's free cashflow. The results show that foreign acquisitions oflow-Q firms are strongly influenced by managerialdiscretion. In addition, acquisitions of low-Q firmsare conducted without consideration of theperformance of the acquirers. Foreign acquisitions ofhigh-Q firms, however, do not representoverinvestments.     

Taking Stock: Equity-Based Compensation and the Evolution of Managerial Ownership

We investigate the impact of stock-based compensation on managerial ownership. We find that equity compensation succeeds in increasing incentives of lower-ownership managers, but higher-ownership managers negate much of its impact by selling previously owned shares. When executives exercise options to acquire stock, nearly all of the shares are sold. Our results illuminate dynamic aspects of managerial ownership arising from divergent goals of boards of directors, who use equity compensation for incentives, and managers, who respond by selling shares for diversification. The findings cast doubt on the frequent and important theoretical assumption that managers cannot hedge the risks of these awards.     

The Effect of Managerial Ownership on Stock Split-Induced Abnormal Returns

This paper tests the proposition that split announcements are informative signals that play a greater information role for widely held firms. We present evidence for an inverse relationship between managerial ownership and the magnitude of stock split-induced abnormal returns. After controlling for industry and firm size, we find that splitting firms have lower managerial ownership, on average, than nonsplitting firms. We also find no evidence that managers trade on inside information prior to announcing splits.     

Defensive Mechanisms and Managerial Discretion

We study a model where firms may possess free cash flow and takeovers may be disruptive. We show that the possibility of a takeover, combined with defensive mechanisms and the ability to pay greenmail, can solve the free cash flow problem in an efficient way. The payment of greenmail reveals information that generates a stock price decline that exceeds the value of the greenmail payment, even though the payment of greenmail is value maximizing. Optimal defensive measures limit takeover attempts if the target stock price is too low. We also provide cross-sectional implications of the analysis.     

Determinants of Managerial Stock Ownership: The Case of CEOs

Research on the determinants of managerial equity ownership in firms is scant. To a limited extent, prior researchers have examined the variations in insider ownership proportions by combining the officers and directors into one group. This paper differs from earlier studies by focusing on the CEO. The evidence suggests that agency costs, free cash flow, and potential non-diversification losses and CEO attributes are important in explaining variations in CEOs' equity proportions in firms. Specifically, the paper finds that the proportion of CEO's ownership is related positively to the firm's debt level, diversification potential of the firm's common stock, free cash flows, and earnings volatility, and related negatively to the firm size.     

Equity Carve-Outs and Managerial Discretion

This study proposes a managerial discretion hypothesis of equity carve-outs in which managers value control over assets and are reluctant to carve out subsidiaries. Thus, managers undertake carve-outs only when the firm is capital constrained. Consistent with this hypothesis, firms that carve out subsidiaries exhibit poor operating performance and high leverage prior to carve-outs. Also consistent with this hypothesis, in carve-outs wherein funds raised are used to pay down debt, the average excess stock return of + 6.63 percent is significantly greater than the average excess stock return of −0.01 percent for carve-outs wherein funds are retained for investment purposes.     

Board Composition, Managerial Ownership, and Firm Performance: An Empirical Analysis

Our objective is to examine the sensitivity of simultaneous equations techniques in corporate governance research. We model Tobin's Q, board composition, and managerial ownership using a three-equation instrumental variables approach, with two specifications and four instruments. We find that the variables are jointly determined. However, results depend strongly on the specification of the model and the instruments. We conclude that results using simultaneous equations methods must be interpreted cautiously, OLS estimates should not be casually dismissed, and that sensitivity analysis is essential when estimating an empirical model whose structure is uncertain.     

Managerial Share Ownership and the Stock Price Effects of Antitakeover Amendment Proposals

Studies that test for an average stock price effect of antitakeover amendments present different results, disagreeing with respect to both the significance and the direction of the effect. This study determines whether effects can be identified when managerial share ownership and amendment type are considered. Results suggest a negative relation between managerial share ownership and the stock price reaction to all but fair price amendment proposals.     

所有权性质、CEO任期与会计稳健性

以高阶理论为基础,运用声誉机制理论、任期五阶段模型、任职期限理论、职业生涯关注等相关理论,以我国2010~2014年 A 股上市公司为样本,实证研究了 CEO 现有任期和预期任期对会计稳健性的影响,并进一步研究了产权性质差异对两者关系的调节效应。研究发现,CEO 现有任期与会计稳健性呈倒U 型关系,CEO 预期任期与会计稳健性正相关。与非国有上市公司相比,在国有上市公司中,CEO 现有任期和预期任期对会计稳健性的影响都更强。     

CEO Ownership and Discretionary Investments

Abstract:  This study investigates empirically the relationship between CEO ownership and discretionary investments such as R&D and capital expenditures. We assert that the under-investment problem is high for R&D-intensive projects, while the over-investment problem is high for capital expenditures because of differences in risk between the two types of investments. Building on the linkages between investments and investment-related agency problems, we hypothesize that the relationship between CEO ownership and investments depends on whether increasing ownership mitigates or exacerbates the under- or over-investment problem. We find a non-linear association between CEO stock ownership and R&D investments; R&D investments increase and then decline across increasing levels of ownership. Further, we find that R&D investments and CEO stock options are positively associated at high levels of option holdings. In contrast, capital expenditures do not vary with CEO ownership (stock or options). Finally, consistent with our underlying assumption, we find that the influence of R&D investments on future firm risk is significantly larger than that of capital expenditures. Our findings indicate that managerial risk aversion affects discretionary investments.     

产权性质差异、管理层过度自信与会计稳健性

本文从行为金融角度,利用沪深两市A股上市公司2008-2012年的经验数据,实证检验了管理层过度自信对会计稳健性的影响,以及不同产权性质下二者影响程度的差异。研究结果表明,管理层的过度自信心理会显著降低公司的会计稳健性水平。进一步区分产权性质,国有上市公司由于存在所有者缺位和债务软约束,管理层过度自信对会计稳健性的影响较民营上市公司更强。文章的结论为完善上市公司管理层权力约束和监督机制提供了一定借鉴意义。     

Managerial Ownership and Accounting Conservatism

In this paper we examine the effect of managerial ownership on financial reporting conservatism. Separation of ownership and control gives rise to agency problems between managers and shareholders. Financial reporting conservatism is one potential mechanism to address these agency problems. We hypothesize that, as managerial ownership declines, the severity of agency problem increases, increasing the demand for conservatism. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that conservatism as measured by the asymmetric timeliness of earnings declines with managerial ownership. The negative association between managerial ownership and asymmetric timeliness of earnings is robust to various controls, in particular, for the investment opportunity set. We thus provide evidence of a demand for conservatism from the firm's shareholders.     

Managerial Ownership and Corporate Hedging

Abstract:  Using information on 443 UK non-financial companies, this work provides evidence supporting the hypothesis that managerial risk aversion is an incentive to deviate from the optimal hedging position. Conflicts of interest between shareholders and managers are at the centre of the decision about the firm's risk profile but are not relevant as determinants of the decision to hedge. This is rather associated with factors enhancing the firm's expected value (underinvestment, scale economies, tax savings).     

股权结构和信息非对称:中国股市的经验证据

本文首先采用1分钟的高频数据和MRR(Madhavan,Richardson＆Roomans,1997)模型测算出沪深股市的信息非对称程度;然后引入上市公司的股权结构因素,实证分析了股权结构对市场信息非对称程度的影响.研究结果表明:内部人持股比例、流通股比例、股价及成交量与信息非对称程度呈正相关关系;机构持股比例、股权集中度、管理层持股比例及股权转让比例与信息非对称程度呈负相关关系.文章在实证研究的基础上,提出了相关政策建议.     

Corporate Real Estate and Stock Market Performance

An interesting question in corporate real estate literature is whether real estate can improve the stock market performance of property-intensive non-real estate firms. Using a data set comprising 75 non-real estate corporations that own at least 20 percent properties, this paper empirically assesses and compares the pair-wise return, total risk, systematic risk and Jensen abnormal return performance of composite (with real estate) and hypothetical business (without real estate) firms. We employed Morgan Stanley Capital International world equity index instead of a local market index to provide some insights into the performance of the local market relative to the global market during the 1997–2001 volatile periods experienced by many Asian countries. Our results suggest the inclusion of real estate in a corporate portfolio appears to be associated with lower return, higher total risk, higher systematic risk and poorer abnormal return performance. It is therefore likely that non-real estate firms own properties for other reasons in addition to seeking improvement in their stock market performance. Further research is needed to explore the main factors contributing to corporate real estate ownership by non-real estate firms.     

管理层持股的治理效应——基于债务期限结构的视角

考虑到中国股市的有效性程度较低及上市公司的股权集中度较高这两个因素,从债务期限结构的角度考察了管理层持股的有效性.研究发现,管理层持股越多,公司债务的期限越短.进一步的分析发现,管理层持股与债务期限结构之间存在的这种负相关关系在高信用等级的企业中表现得更为突出.这表明管理层持股减轻了管理层与股东之间的代理成本,具有一定的治理效应.