The value relevance of top executive departures: Evidence from the Netherlands

On theoretical grounds, monitoring of top executives by the (supervisory) board is expected to be value relevant. The empirical evidence is ambiguous and we analyze three non-competing explanations for this ambiguity: (i) The positive effect on firm value of board monitoring is hidden in stock price effects due to the simultaneous occurrence of the positive real effect of monitoring and the opposing information effect. (ii) The combination of board monitoring and monitoring by other parties prevents assessing the value relevance of board monitoring in isolation. (iii) The confounding effect of a simultaneous successor appointment typically generates an upward biased estimate. Based on an analysis of price effects and trading volumes at announcement, we conclude that monitoring by the supervisory board is valued by investors: Forced departures of executive directors, also without a successor appointment, are value relevant in the Netherlands where external control mechanisms and shareholder control were virtually absent in the period studied (1991–2000).     

Mandatory IFRS adoption and executive compensation:Evidence from China

This study investigates how the mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards(IFRS) affects the contractual benefits of using accounting information to determine executive compensation in China. After controlling for firm and corporate governance characteristics, we find strong evidence supporting the positive role of mandatory IFRS adoption on the accounting-based performance sensitivity of executive compensation. Subsample analysis suggests that improvements in accounting-based performance sensitivity after IFRS adoption differ across regions with various levels of institutional quality and across firms that are affected to a different extent by the adoption. Additional analysis supports the argument that the positive effects of IFRS adoption on the use of accounting performance in executive compensation are driven by the reduction in accounting conservatism associated with IFRS adoption.     

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.     

Overemployment,executive pay-for-performance sensitivity and economic consequences: Evidence from China

Using a sample of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges during the 1999–2009 period, we investigate the effects of overemployment on executives’ pay-for-performance sensitivity (PPS) and analyze how the behavior of firms with high/low PPS affects the number of surplus employees. We find the existence of a redundant workforce significantly weakens PPS and the role of accounting measures in performance assessment. In contrast to prior literature, we find that higher PPS is associated with a stronger incentive to lay off redundant employees and to limit future employee numbers. We also find that weaker government intervention strengthens managerial control over the future size of the workforce. Finally, our findings suggest that a heavier government policy burden on SOEs leads to lower tax rates and more government gains.     

Delegation and sensitivity of CEO turnover to firm performance within business groups: Evidence from China

In emerging markets, companies are often organized into corporate groups in which the controlling shareholders control the member firms through stock pyramids and cross-shareholdings. We examine how the incentive for these controlling shareholders to maximize the value of groups results in less delegation of decision rights to the CEO of the member firm and, in turn, how such delegation affects the rate of CEO turnover in response to the financial performance measures reported by member firms. Our results suggest that delegation, measured as the extent to which controlling owners control the board of directors, is negatively associated with the interdependence of member firms. We also find that delegation weakens the sensitivity of the CEO-turnover rate to financial performance measures. These findings extend the literature by providing evidence on how delegation and management-incentive arrangements are jointly determined at the firm level.     

Profits and losses from changes in fair value,executive cash compensation and managerial power: Evidence from A-share listed companies in China

According to optimal contracting theory, compensation contracts are effective in solving the agency problem between stockholders and managers. Executive compensation is naturally related to firm performance. However, contracts are not always perfect. Managers may exert influence on the formulation and implementation of compensation contracts by means of their managerial power. As fair value has been introduced into the new accounting standards in China, new concerns have arisen over the relationship between profits and losses from changes in fair value (CFV) and levels of executive compensation. In this study, we find that executive compensation is significantly related to CFV. However, this sensitivity is asymmetric in that increases to compensation due to profits from changes in fair value (PCFV) are higher than reductions to compensation due to losses from changes in fair value (LCFV). Furthermore, we find that managerial power determines the strength of this asymmetry.     

Labor and Corporate Governance: International Evidence from Restructuring Decisions

Our results highlight the importance of interaction among management, labor, and investors in shaping corporate governance. We find that strong union laws protect not only workers but also underperforming managers. Weak investor protection combined with strong union laws are conducive to worker–management alliances, wherein poorly performing firms sell assets to prevent large-scale layoffs, garnering worker support to retain management. Asset sales in weak investor protection countries lead to further deteriorating performance, whereas in strong investor protection countries they improve performance and lead to more layoffs. Strong union laws are less effective in preventing layoffs when financial leverage is high.     

Reputation penalties for poor monitoring of executive pay: Evidence from option backdating

We study whether outside directors are held accountable for poor monitoring of executive compensation by examining the reputation penalties to directors of firms involved in the option backdating (BD) scandal of 2006–2007. We find that, at firms involved in BD, significant penalties accrued to compensation committee members (particularly those who served during the BD period) both in terms of votes withheld when up for election and in terms of turnover, especially in more severe cases of BD. However, directors of BD firms did not suffer similar penalties at non-BD firms, raising the question of whether reputation penalties for poor oversight of executive pay are large enough to affect the ex ante incentives of directors.     

Corporate Governance,Political Connections,and Intra‐Industry Effects: Evidence from Corporate Scandals in China

This paper investigates intra‐industry spillover effects of corporate scandals in China. We demonstrate how a contagion effect spreads to peer firms depending upon the quality of corporate governance and their political connections. Good corporate governance in peer firms reduces the contagion effect of scandals. External governance has a stronger influence on reducing the contagion effect of both financial and non‐financial scandals, while ownership concentration and the quality of auditors play a more pronounced role in mitigating the contagion effect of financial scandals. State ownership helps to mitigate the negative influence of non‐financial scandals in individual‐owned firms, but not in state‐owned enterprises.     

这里政变静悄悄

从外表上看,高盛是一个朝气蓬勃的坚强集体,团结紧张,严肃活泼。其实,高盛内部充满阴谋和背叛,云谲波诡,杀机四伏,领导班子更替时更是如此,比雍正王朝还要雍正王朝。查尔斯D·埃利斯（Charles D．E11is）所著《合伙制》（The Partnership）一书专门有一章介绍高盛的王朝更迭,标题就是“政变”。     

Investor Protection and Corporate Governance: Evidence from Worldwide CEO Turnover

Recent research asserts that an essential feature of good corporate governance is strong investor protection, where investor protection is defined as the extent of the laws that protect investors' rights and the strength of the legal institutions that facilitate law enforcement. The purpose of this study is to test this assertion by investigating whether these measures of investor protection are associated with an important role of good corporate governance: identifying and terminating poorly performing CEOs. Our tests indicate that strong law enforcement institutions significantly improve the association between CEO turnover and poor performance, whereas extensive investor protection laws do not. In addition, we find that in countries with strong law enforcement, CEO turnover is more likely to be associated with poor stock returns when stock prices are more informative. Finding that strong law enforcement institutions are associated with improved CEO turnover‐performance sensitivity is consistent with good corporate governance requiring law enforcement institutions capable of protecting shareholders' property rights (i.e., protecting shareholders from expropriation by insiders). Finding that investor  protection laws are not associated with improved CEO turnover‐performance sensitivity is open to several explanations. For example, investor protection laws may not be as important as strong law enforcement in fostering good governance, the set of laws we examine may not be the set that are most important in promoting good governance, or measurement error in our surrogate for extensive investor protection laws may reduce the power of our test of this variable.     

The Corporate Governance Role of the Media: Evidence from Russia

We study the effect of media coverage on corporate governance by focusing on Russia in the period 1999 to 2002. We find that an investment fund's lobbying increases coverage of corporate governance violations in the Anglo-American press. We also find that coverage in the Anglo-American press increases the probability that a corporate governance violation is reversed. This effect is present even when we instrument coverage with an exogenous determinant, the fund's portfolio composition at the beginning of the period. The fund's strategy seems to work in part by impacting Russian companies' reputation abroad and in part by forcing regulators into action.     

资本结构对公司治理机制的影响：来自管理报酬的证据

财务杠杆能够强化管理报酬的业绩敏感度,并优化管理报酬的激励结构。公司债务所生成的约束机制有助于改善公司治理机制,促进管理效率,减少自由现金流的代理成本,并最终实现公司价值的提升。财务杠杆对公司价值有积极效应。     

Corporate governance,top executive compensation and firm performance in Japan

For 174 large Japanese corporations during 1992–1996, we find that top executive pay is higher in firms with weaker corporate governance mechanisms, controlling for standard economic determinants of pay. We use management ownership and family control (“the ownership mechanisms”), and keiretsu affiliation, the presence of outside directors, and board size (“the monitoring mechanisms”) to measure corporate governance mechanisms. We also find that the excess pay related to ownership and monitoring variables is negatively associated with subsequent accounting performance, consistent with the presence of an agency problem. We do not, however, find an association between this excess pay and subsequent stock returns.     

Clawbacks and Cronyism: Evidence from China

This paper is the first to examine the long‐term impact on bank lending policy of clawbacks in executive compensation contracts. Using a hand‐gathered database of Chinese business lending, we find evidence of reduced cronyism at the Big Four Chinese banks during the period after the introduction of a clawback program, marking a shift from earlier studies covering earlier time periods that find evidence of widespread cronyism at the Big Four banks. Politically connected borrowers received fewer and smaller loans relative to non‐Big Four banks, consistent with a backlash against cronyism at the Big Four banks. In contrast, we find that cronyism persisted (i.e., politically connected borrowers received more and larger loans) at non‐Big Four Chinese banks where the clawback policy was not effective.     

Tradeoffs between Internal and External Governance: Evidence from Exogenous Regulatory Shocks

We use the 2002 NYSE and NASDAQ listing requirements mandating firms have a majority of independent directors on the board as an exogenous shock to examine the interaction between internal and external governance. Relative to compliant firms, noncompliant firms significantly reduced exposure to three external governance mechanisms: the market for corporate control, shareholder activism, and credit markets, by adding antitakeover provisions, adopting officer and director protection provisions, and reducing debt levels, respectively. The results are stronger in firms with greater exposure to the relevant external governance mechanism. The evidence suggests that firms treat internal and external governance as substitutes.     

Corporate Governance and the Cost of Capital: Evidence from Australian Companies

The authors examine a sample of large Australian companies over a 10‐year period with the aim of analyzing the role that firm‐level corporate governance mechanisms such as insider ownership and independent boards play in explaining a company's cost of capital. The Australian corporate system offers a unique environment for assessing the impact of corporate governance mechanisms. Australian companies have board structures and mechanisms that are similar in design to Anglo‐Saxon boards while offering a striking contrast to those of German and Japanese boards. At the same time, however, the Australian market for corporate control is much less active as a corrective mechanism against management entrenchment than its U.S. and U.K. counterparts, making the role of internal governance mechanisms potentially more important in Australia than elsewhere. The authors report that greater insider ownership, the presence of institutional blockholders, and independent boards are all associated with reductions in the perceived risk of a firm, thereby leading investors to demand lower rates of return on capital. In so doing, the study provides evidence of the important role of corporate governance in increasing corporate values.     

House Price and co-Residence with Older Parents: Evidence from China

Numerous Chinese families choose to reside together with their elderly parents due to the considerable impacts of conventional values such as filial duty in Chinese society. However, as house prices rocketed up in major Chinese cities over the past decade, this arrangement is facing a sizeable challenge, therefore also raising new research question about it. This paper attempts to investigate the phenomenon of co-residence of adult children with their elderly parents in China. Using the 2013 data of China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), we document that house price is indeed a significant determinant for the pattern of intergenerational co-residence. Our empirical results can provide interesting insights into the important implication of rising house price for household residential arrangements in this country.     

Executive compensation in business groups: Evidence from China

This paper examines executive compensation in the subsidiaries of business groups in China. Analyzing a sample of China business groups(the so-called'Xi Zu Ji T...