Human resource management, corporate governance structure and corporate performance in Korea: a comparative analysis of Japan, US and Korea

This paper investigates the influences of human resource management (HRM) and corporate governance structure on the corporate performance in Korean firms. Prior to the Asian economic crisis, large Korean firms mostly followed the Japanese style HRM paradigm where the practice of lifetime employment is guaranteed. However, in the aftermath of the crisis, they have pursued structural downsizing and changed their paradigm more towards the US HRM paradigm where inter-firm mobility becomes prominent in the flexible labor market. The empirical evidence introduced in this paper affirms the argument that the first step towards a HRM paradigm shift in Korea should be the establishment of an efficient corporate governance structure. This implies that a simple switch from the Japanese HRM paradigm to the US model may not improve corporate performance unless the change is accompanied by a solution to the problems posed by the minority controlling structure of Korean companies. The implications of this study for guiding policy in developing countries having labor market rigidities and underdeveloped corporate governance is clear. Corporate governance systems may provide an appropriate starting point for the development of any policies aimed at building an efficient human resource management system and a flexible labor market.     

Corporate governance and the cost of public debt financing: Evidence from Japan

This paper explores the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and the cost of public debt financing in Japan. Using a sample of corporate bonds newly issued in Japan during the period 2005–2008, I find that CEO ownership is associated with higher yield spreads after controlling for other governance, bond, and firm characteristics. Founding family ownership is also positively related to yield spreads. In contrast, firms with large corporate shareholders enjoy lower yield spreads. These results are robust to various alternative specifications. Overall, my results indicate the importance of corporate governance mechanisms in Japanese corporate bond markets.     

Tax incentive and corporate financial performance: Evidence from income tax revenue sharing reform in China

How to stimulate corporate performance is a crucial issue of general concern in all countries. This paper examines how China’s Income Tax Revenue Sharing Reform in 2002 affects corporate financial performance. Unlike general tax policies that directly adjust the nominal tax rate or depreciation allowance, this reform indirectly affects the effective Enterprise Income Tax (EIT) rate by switching tax administration, thereby affecting corporate financial performance. We use a firm-level data-set from Annual Survey of Industrial Firms (ASIF), and test the impact by using a quasi-natural experimental design through regression discontinuity design (RDD). We find that after the reform, the effective EIT rate (ETR) of enterprises collected EIT by State Administration of Taxation (SAT) was 10% lower than that of enterprises collected EIT by the Local Administration of Taxation (LAT). If the ETR reduces by 1%, corporate financial performance, more specific, Return on Asset (ROA), increases by 1.7%. There are two available channels: increasing fixed asset investment (FAI), and alleviating external financial constraints. Additionally, the impact can be weakened for locally SOEs, large firms, firms with low SA index and those in less competitive industries.     

Financial constraints and corporate investment in Asian countries

This study overcomes the analytic shortcomings of the linear investment models and applies a Panel Smooth Transition Regression model to examine the investment ratios of 519 non-financial listed firms in six Asian countries over the period of 1991–2004. We find that investment-cash flow sensitivities vary across firms in the sample countries. Additionally, our findings also show that investment-cash flow sensitivity has also been affected by the business cycle in these countries. Furthermore, we find new evidence that tangible assets play a significant role in explaining the increase (decrease) in the investment-cash flow sensitivities for South and East Asian countries. These results imply that possession of the tangible assets increases debt capacity, which in turn reduces under-investment. These new findings have significant implications for financing and investment choices of the firms in the sample countries.     

Holding company risk in China: a final step of state-owned enterprises reform and an emerging problem of corporate governance

Public Enterprise Reform in China has reached a plataeu, and is awaiting the last step of privatization. Most of non-regulated industries in China has improved their competitiveness thorough a hard and intense competition, particularly in the home appliance industry. However, it still happened that excellent companies with nationwide brands suddenly fall into severe difficulties and suddenly disappears in the industry, as we seen in the early 1990's. Author argues that this is caused by structure of corporate governance in China, which can facilitate to enhance the control right of the controlling shareholder, that is the government for the most of listed company in China, compared to their holding cash flow right. This corporate structure, which is called “pyramiding” allows an implicit controller of the company, the municipal government, to exploit. In the cases of listed company in China, the “holding company” is the conduit of this risk. Experiences of 2 companies from home appliance industries in China will be documented here.     

从应对全球经济失衡视角看东亚经济金融合作

经常项目收支失衡加剧是全球经济失衡的重要体现。近年来,以美国为一极的发达国家经常项目逆差急剧膨胀;而包括中国在内的东亚国家和地区的经常项目顺差不断扩张。由于经常项目赤字滚雪球般地急剧膨胀,加上美国储蓄率过低、财政赤字高涨,导致了美国对国际资本的巨大需求。而东亚地区由于汇率体制和对美经济依存等原因,被动地持有大量美元资产并向美国提供大量资金。全球国际收支失衡不断向主要几个国家和地区集中,从中长期来看这种不均衡现象是不可持续的,东亚国家面临极大的风险。这一背景下,加强东亚区域经济金融合作是必然的选择。     

The Economic Impact of the Lack of Transparency in Financial Reporting

Off-balance-sheet amounts are in the trillions of dollars, not including all transactions with off-balance-sheet implications. Financial managers and consultants intentionally structure transactions that are abusive of off-balance sheet accounting rules, which leads to a lack of transparency in financial reporting. This paper explores several ways in which companies manipulate off-balance sheet transactions to satisfy personal and business objectives as well as the impact of such manipulations. It is time for regulatory bodies to close the loopholes, eliminate overly rules-based standards, clearly state the economic objective of each standard, and require firms to disclose the economic motivations for the accounting practices they adopt.      

Compensation negotiation and corporate governance: the evidence from China

This paper examines CEO pay dispersion for the listed companies in China. We apply a two-tier stochastic frontier model to the CEO compensation framework where asymmetric information generates a surplus between the minimum wage that CEOs accept and the maximum payment that firms offer. This surplus leads to CEO pay dispersion coming from the negotiation power between the CEO and the firm. We generate the surplus extracted by each CEO-firm pair and analyze how corporate governance affects them. An empirical analysis finds that: (1) On average, CEOs are paid 23.26% more than the benchmark; (2) additionally, we examine the bargaining power in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs). We find that CEOs in SOEs have less bargaining power due to compensation regulations. We then examine compensation for new CEOs hired externally and find that CEOs hired externally have less bargaining power on average; and (3) corporate governance has a significant effect on the salary bargaining power of each agent. More specifically, the CEO-Chairman dummy has a significant positive effect on the bargaining power of firms and CEOs, but the latter is larger. Board size has a negative effect on both. Independent directors help improve the bargaining power of the firms and board meeting times help enhance the bargaining power of the CEOs. Equity concentration has a significant negative effect on both sides.     

Cross‐border Mergers and Acquisitions and Financial Development: Evidence from Emerging Asia

This paper examines the relationship between cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and financial development in emerging Asian economies. Bilateral cross‐border M&A data for nine emerging Asian economies covering 2000–2009 are analyzed with a sample selection model and a panel data model. The estimation results show that although the banking sector still plays a crucial role in facilitating cross‐border M&A, the role of equity markets has increased in importance because, in addition to cash, the issuance of common stock and the exchange of stocks have become popular forms of payment for M&A deals. Because of the relatively thin market, the primary corporate bond market plays a limited role in supporting cross‐border M&A, which is in contrast to the primary public bond market. However, for the secondary market, the corporate bond market is more effective in facilitating cross‐border M&A. The results also show that financial development in terms of stock and bond markets in their home countries tends to become more important when the target firms reside in more developed countries. In addition to financial development, the paper shows that most cross‐border M&A are invested in technology‐related and resource‐based industries while cheap labor industries are relatively less attractive.     

State ownership and corporate performance: A quantile regression analysis of Chinese listed companies

This study assesses the impact of government shareholding on corporate performance using a sample of 643 non-financial companies listed on the Chinese stock exchanges. In view of the controversial empirical findings in the literature and the limitations of the least squares regressions, we adopt the method of quantile regression and report a robust and significant negative relation between government shareholding and corporate performance among, and only among, the more profitable firms. This new finding, which the conditional mean-focused regressions do not capture, suggests that while Chinese government still exerts influences on the performance of these partially privatized firms, the relationship parameter changes across quantiles of the distribution of performance variables.     

小额信贷扶贫与财务可持续性:作用机制与协调发展研究

扶贫与财务可持续发展是小额信贷公司应该同时兼顾的两个重要问题,本文从静态和动态角度分析小额信贷公司扶贫和财务可持续发展的作用机制,研究发现在短期内小额信贷对盈利的追求会损害扶贫功能的发挥,但从长期、动态的角度看,扶贫与财务可持续发展是可以协调的,提出了我国小额信贷扶贫与财务可持续性协调发展的具体对策。     

区域经济金融合作:东亚应对全球失衡的必然选择

从中长期来看，全球国际收支失衡不断向主要几个国家和地区集中是不可持续的，东亚国家面临极大的风险。这一背景下，加强东亚区域经济金融合作是必然的选择。东亚国家和地区应完善区域合作协调机制、加强区域货币和贸易投资合作，并进一步促进亚洲债券市场发展。     

全球化动力衰减与后危机时代的东亚区域合作

世界性经济危机是人类全球化进程的重要后果之一,它以破坏性和消极的方式影响和控制全球化的速度和节奏,并展示全球化动力出现的衰减程度。2007年世界性金融危机是全球化动力衰减的外部表征,它为东亚区域合作提供了新的契机,这种契机在多大程度上转化为行动,将依赖于体系层面各国的合作程度以及中国的经济转型能否取得成功。     

The Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 and Capital‐Market Behavior: Early Evidence*

The Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 (“the Act”) was enacted in response to numerous corporate and accounting scandals. It aims to reinforce corporate accountability and professional responsibility in order to restore investor confidence in corporate America. This study examines the capital‐market reaction to the Act and finds a positive (negative) abnormal return at the time of several legislative events that increased (decreased) the likelihood of the passage of the Act. We interpret this finding as evidence supporting the notion that the Act is wealth‐increasing in the sense that its induced benefits significantly outweigh its imposed compliance costs. We also find that the market reaction is more positive for firms that are more compliant with the provisions of the Act prior to its enactment.     

行业类别、公司治理与盈余质量

依据CSMAR数据库中房地产、工业、公用事业、商业和综合类中国上市公司2011年资料,对公司治理与盈余质量的关系进行研究。发现:第一大股东持股比例与盈余质量正相关仅在商业类公司样本中显著,在其他行业样本中不显著。