The causal effect of religious piety on shareholder wealth: evidence from acquirer returns and historical religious identification

Prior research shows that religion promotes honesty. Honesty in turn motivates managers to view an expropriation from shareholders as self-serving, opportunistic and unethical, thereby alleviating the agency conflict. Religious piety is thus expected to discourage agency-driven acquisitions that reduce shareholder wealth. We exploit the variation in religious piety across US counties (and states) and show that firms located in a more religious environment are indeed less likely to make poor acquisitions, measured by the stock market reactions to the acquisition announcement. To draw a causal inference, we use historical religious piety as far back as 1952 as our instrument. The two-stage least squares (2SLS) analysis confirms that religious piety induces firms to make better acquisitions. Our analysis based on propensity score matching also corroborates the conclusion.     

Exploring the causal effect of religious piety on dividend policy: evidence from historical religious identification

Theory suggests that religious piety is associated with greater risk aversion and more conservative financial policies. Returns to shareholders through dividends are much more certain than returns through capital gains expected to be realized far into the future. We hypothesize that religious piety leads to a higher likelihood of dividend payments. We exploit the variation in religious piety across the US counties and estimate the effect of religion on dividend policy. To draw a causal inference, we use historical religious piety in 1971 as the instrument. Our two-stage least squares results confirm that religious piety induces firms to pay larger dividends.     

董事会治理与企业技术创新:理论与实证

本文在代理理论的框架内考察了公司治理之董事会治理与企业技术创新投入的关系,并基于2004-2008年501家中国上市公司的数据对此进行了实证研究。结果表明:1)董事会规模与企业技术创新投入存在不显著的负相关关系;2)独立董事占比与企业技术创新投入存在显著的正相关关系,独立董事占比较高的企业其技术创新投入要显著高于独立董事占比较低的企业;3)董事长与总经理两职分离的制度安排对企业技术创新投入有显著的积极影响,两职分离的企业其技术创新投入要显著高于两职合一的企业;4)董事会股权激励对企业技术创新存在积极影响,董事会股权激励水平越高,企业技术创新投入越多,但这种发现仅具有较低的统计显著性。     

How do independent directors influence innovation productivity? A quasi-natural experiment

Due to managerial myopia, managers may be reluctant to make long-term investment decisions that do not produce immediate results. Effective corporate governance can align managers’ short-term-oriented incentives with shareholders’ long-term interests. Because the board of directors is the paramount governance mechanism, we explore the role of board governance on managerial myopia. In particular, we investigate the effect of independent directors on corporate innovation. To minimize endogeneity, we exploit the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act as an exogenous shock that raises board independence. Our difference-in-difference estimates show that board independence leads to significantly higher investments in innovation as well as higher innovation productivity. Our results are consequential as they show that board governance has a palpable effect on important corporate outcomes such as innovation productivity.     

Using demographic identification to estimate the effects of board size on corporate performance

Motivated by agency theory, we investigate the effect of board size on corporate outcomes. To address endogeneity, we exploit the variations in the director-age populations across the states in the US. We argue that firms with access to a larger pool of potential directors tend to have larger boards. Consistent with this notion, our empirical results show that firms located where the size of the director-age population is larger have significantly larger board size. Because the director-age population represents broad demographic trends outside of any firm’s control, it is unlikely related to firm outcomes or policies and should be exogenous. Using the director-age population as our instrument, we estimate the effects of board size on firm value and profitability. Our approach is less vulnerable to endogeneity and is more likely to show a causal effect.     

董事会非正式层级与企业创新——关系契约理论视角

创新既是企业获取长期竞争优势的关键行动,也是我国经济高质量发展的内生动力。董事会作为战略决策机构与治理核心,其内部运作机制必然会影响企业创新水平。基于关系契约理论,以2008—2019年沪深A股上市公司为数据样本,实证研究董事会非正式层级对企业创新的影响。结果发现,董事会非正式层级越清晰,企业创新水平越高,而当股权集中度较高、CEO处于非正式层级最高位时,董事会非正式层级与企业创新间的正相关关系会被削弱。进一步研究发现,董事会非正式层级可以通过降低企业环境不确定性和抑制管理层短视行为提升企业创新水平;区分创新类型后,相比于策略性创新,董事会非正式层级更能够显著提升企业实质性创新水平;董事会非正式层级能够提升企业价值。结论基于新的研究视角从微观动态交互层面理解董事会结构特征对企业创新的影响,对企业加强董事会建设、提升创新水平具有重要借鉴意义。     

独立董事社会关系增进还是削弱了董事会的功能*——基于灰色董事行为的博弈分析

董事会在公司治理中的作用得到了代理理论和友好董事会理论的广泛且富有成效的论证,而最近的灰色董事理论则致力于分析独立董事与CEO之间的社会关系及其对董事会功用的影响。本文构建了一个统一的理论模型,分析了股东、董事会和CEO之间的三阶段博弈,考察了灰色董事的监督和建议功能。结果发现,CEO和董事之间的关系可以削弱对企业的监督行为,但会增强建议行为,且该建议功能随着CEO持股比例的增加而增加;大股东和董事之间的关系不仅不能解决委托代理问题,反而有可能加剧大股东对小股东的掏空行为。     

Board size,corporate regulations and firm valuation in an emerging market: a simultaneous equation approach

We investigate the association between board size and firm valuation for a sample of 169 firms from 2002 to 2011 in South Africa (SA). The SA corporate context is interestingly and uniquely characterised by an urgency to meet affirmative action regulations, such as black empowerment in board appointments, limited qualified and experienced directors, especially black directors, concentrated ownership, weak enforcement of corporate regulations and greater government ownership. These features make SA corporate boards perform a weaker agency (advisory, monitoring and disciplining) role than Western European and US boards, but a stronger resource dependence role, by providing access to resources, such as business contacts and contracts. This suggests that any positive impact of board size on firm valuation is likely to depend on the effective execution of the resource dependence role more than the agency role. Our results suggest that board size has a positive association with firm valuation, consistent with larger boards providing better access to resources. Overall, our results support the resource dependence role of boards more than their agency role. The results are robust across a raft of econometric models that control for different types of endogeneity, as well as different types of accounting and market-based firm valuation measures.     

Dividend policy and investor pressure

The economics of dividend policy has focused on the single tight narrative that dividends keep managers honest, mitigating concerns that they over-invest. This article provides a critique of that agency narrative, arguing that pressure from short-term focused investors, executives and board members pushes the firm into preemptive actions of returning too much cash via dividends. We analyze three channels of influence for investor pressure through 1) threat of takeovers, 2) shareholder value oriented corporate governance, measured by director independence and board equity incentives, and 3) trading and institutional ownership patterns. We find that firms adopt a higher dividend payout to discourage takeover bids. Also, FTSE 100 firms, that are most focused on shareholder value governance in the form of equity-based compensation and a higher share of independent directors, display a higher dividend payout. Frequency of trading and ownership by transient investors seeking current profits also predict increased dividend payout. Traditional agency theory, focused on dividends as a tool for managerial discipline, is not strongly supported by the results, which rather support a narrative of short-term investor pressure on firms irrespective of investment opportunities.     

海外子公司的能力、战略角色与董事会安排的匹配分析

海外子公司的能力增长是驱动其战略角色变化的内在因素。从母子公司之间的代理关系与企业的能力观来说,海外子公司的战略角色与其董事会的安排存在着内在的、必然的联系。不同战略角色的海外子公司董事会的安排需要同时考虑代理成本最小化和子公司能力增长问题,即以母子公司之间的委托代理为主线来对董事会进行安排的同时,需要从能力的视角来补充考虑如何通过董事会的安排来提高子公司的战略绩效。     

何种内部治理机制影响了公司权益代理成本--大股东与董事会治理效率的比较

文章采用相对管理费用作为权益代理成本的代理变量,以1999~2002年上市公司为对象,检验了两种核心的内部治理机制———大股东和董事会对公司经营者代理问题的影响。研究发现,董事会独立性在国家控股公司与非国家控股公司之间存在一定的差异,但对公司权益代理成本几乎没有影响;相反,终极控股权性质对权益代理成本产生了显著影响,即无论是否考虑董事会独立性的影响,国家控股公司的代理成本显著高于非国家控股公司;并且,在国家控股公司中,控股股东持股比例越高,公司权益代理成本越高。此外,文章还发现,国家控股方式影响了公司权益代理成本,国资部门控股公司代理成本显著高于其他的国家控股公司。     

Estimating the effect of board independence on managerial ownership using a quasi-natural experiment

Grounded in agency theory, this article investigates the effect of board independence on managerial ownership. We exploit the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act and the associated exchange listing requirements as an exogenous regulatory shock that raises board independence. Our difference-in-difference estimates show that board independence leads to significantly higher managerial ownership. In particular, firms forced to raise board independence exhibit managerial ownership that is 26.35% higher, relative to firms not required to raise board independence. Thus, board independence and managerial equity ownership constitute governance mechanisms that act as complements, rather than substitutes. Our empirical strategy relies on a quasi-natural experiment and is far more likely to show a causal effect than what has been documented in the literature. Finally, an instrumental-variable analysis reinforces our conclusion.     

BOARD GOVERNANCE: DOES OWNERSHIP MATTER?

Good governance is crucial to achieving an organization's mission. Nevertheless, little is known about how the structure of governance is influenced by the nonprofit (NPO) or for‐profit ownership (FPO) structure of an organization, partly because they tend to be active in different sectors. In this paper we overcome this challenge by using data from a global sample of 392 microfinance institutions. The results show that the average NPO has a larger board, more female directors, and a higher number of board meetings than the average FPO. Moreover, where there are larger boards and more frequent board meetings, this has a positive effect on the financial performance of NPOs. It is thus confirmed that ownership structures influence boards’ characteristics and that some board mechanisms are more efficient in some ownership structures than in others. An effective board design should thus be based on a firm's ownership structure.     

Board structure,ownership, and financial distress in banking firms

This investigation pursues a new direction in the analysis of financial distress in banking firms. The research was inspired by recent research on corporate governance and the need to understand the internal processes behind the financial decisions that result in bank failures. The analysis examined the relationship between the ownership and structure of the board of directors and the internal control mechanism that influences the survival of the firm. The following aspects of ownership and governance are investigated: ownership by directors and officers, ownership by the CEO, number of directors, percentage of inside directors, and CEO duality. The influence of board structure and ownership on the probability of financial distress was explored with a sample of approximately 300 banking firms. The empirical tests indicated a lower probability of financial distress when one person is both the CEO and chairman of the board, but the other factors did not have a significant effect.     

高管薪酬、公司治理与公司业绩——基于沪深两市上市公司的研究

以2005—2011年沪深两市1236至2107家上市公司为样本,通过研究高管薪酬、公司治理以及公司业绩之间的关系发现：独立董事在董事会的占比越大、CEO对董事会的影响力越大对高管薪酬具有显著的正向影响;而股权集中度、公司为国有控股、董事会持股董事会越多、监事会持股监事越多对高管薪酬具有显著的负向影响。并且因公司治理引起高管获得的超额薪酬与公司业绩具有显著的负相关关系。     

Stock market reactions to announcements of the board of directors: evidence from Italy

The board of directors plays an important role in corporate governance. It is an internal mechanism that controls and monitors the actions of managers and aligns the utility functions between corporate owners and managers. The board of directors performs multiple functions that concern, for example, the replacement of the managers, financial policy, the preparation of strategic plans and other actions that affect the performance of the company. The board plays an important role since on the one hand it controls the actions of management and on the other it advises the management regarding the strategies to be adopted. In this study, 100 announcements regarding the appointment of the board of directors of 100 Italian listed companies during the period 2012–2014 are investigated. The results show a positive reaction within 20 days around the announcement date. In four of the six time windows, cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) are positive and statistically significant. The positive reaction of the market would appear, however, to be linked more to the composition of the board of directors than to the size of the board of directors.     

Does corporate governance play an important role in BHC performance? Evidence from the U.S.

This study explores the relationship between the operating performance and corporate governance of bank holding companies (BHCs) in the U.S. The modified data envelopment analysis (DEA) is utilized to integrate the five rating indicators of CAMEL (Capital Adequacy, Asset Quality, Management, Earnings, and Liquidity) so as to estimate the BHCs' performance. This study also employs the modified tiered DEA to categorize 68 BHCs into three Tiers. Additionally, the truncated-regression is employed to discuss whether or not the corporate governance would affect the performance of BHCs. The empirical results present the trade-off relationship with CAMEL indicators in the Tier1—Efficient BHCs. Moreover, it has been found that there are negative impacts on BHC's performance from board size, outside directors, the average age of directors and CEO/Chairman duality, while there are positive impacts from the number of committee and Big-4 auditors. The results further prove that corporate governance is important for the operating performance of BHCs.     

DOES THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS AFFECT FIRM PERFORMANCE OF CONSUMER CO‐OPERATIVES? THE CASE OF ICOOP KOREA

Consumer co‐operatives in Korea have been growing rapidly since they launched their own shops. If co‐operatives would be too much oriented to enlargement or economic growth, they might easily pay no attention to members’ participation which is one of the priorities in co‐operatives. It could lead to losing the value of co‐operatives. So it is important to adjust the balance between members’ participation and economic growth. This paper focuses on the role of board of directors in doing that. It aims to examine how effectiveness of the board influences members’ participation and the participation has effect on performance of co‐operatives in the case of iCOOP Korea. The variables such as communication with members and usage of management skills and knowledge are employed as measures of the effectiveness of the board in decision‐making process. The data are collected by survey the respondents of which are 222 directors of 30 primary co‐operatives. It is analyzed by Structural Equation Model. The findings of the research are as follows. Firstly, communication of the board with members increases the members’ democratic participation, and the increased participation contributes to improving the financial performance. Secondly, management skills and knowledge of the board does not have significant relations with the level of members’ participation, even though members’ economic participation has significantly positive relation with the financial performance. The findings imply that members’ voluntary participation will be increased when boards of co‐operatives try to reflect members’ needs in the decision making processes, and it can help the co‐operatives improve their financial performance. It suggests a clue for the trade‐off between the value of co‐operatives and growth of business which many co‐operatives are trying to resolve.     

Board of directors’ quality and firms’ debt financing: the moderating effect of insider ownership – evidence from Omani firms

This study aims to examine the direct effects of board of directors’ quality and insider ownership on firms’ capital structure and the moderating effect of insider ownership on the relationship between board of directors’ quality and firms’ capital structure. The sample of this study consists of the time period 2005–2011. The final sample consists of 535 firm-year observations of public nonfinancial firms listed on the Muscat Securities Market (MSM). The hypotheses are tested using a random effects model. The results reveal that the coefficient sign on the board of directors’ quality is as predicted, but the coefficient sign is insignificant. Further, the results show that insider ownership is positively associated with leverage at the significant level of 10%, suggesting that the inside substantial shareholders employ higher leverage. With regard to the moderating effect of insider ownership, the findings show that the effect of the board of directors’ quality-leverage relationship becomes negative and stronger with increasing insider ownership.     

代理成本与审计师选择--基于中国IPO公司的研究

西方大量研究表明,公司的代理冲突程度越高,选择大事务所进行审计的动力就越强。文章在对179家IPO公司研究后发现,建立在英美市场经济条件下的代理理论对我国审计师选择行为的解释力并不充分。在公司规模、成长性、财务杠杆、管理层持股比例、董事会独立性等反映公司代理冲突的变量中,仅公司规模与是否选择大事务所进行审计有显著正向关系,管理层持股与是否选择大事务所审计则呈倒U形关系,没有发现成长性、财务杠杆与审计师选择存在显著关系的证据。