Law and Executive Compensation: A Cross‐Country Study

Companies outside the U.S. use substantially less equity in their compensation mix than U.S. firms. But despite this consistent “cross‐sectional” difference, the pattern of changes in equity‐based pay of non‐U.S. companies over time appears to mirror changes in the pay of U.S. companies. The authors provide persuasive evidence that features of a nation's legal environment help explain major differences in compensation structure across countries. As a general rule, companies in countries that provide greater protection of shareholder rights use larger amounts of equity‐based compensation. And the equity mix also tends to be higher when a country's legal system ensures strict enforcement of the laws that are on the books. At the same time, since the equity mix varies considerably over time within the same legal environment, it is clear that factors other than the legal environment affect compensation structure. The authors report that, after controlling for legal factors, company‐specific variables that proxy for “agency” conflicts—not only between managers and shareholders, but between controlling and minority shareholders as well—also affect the compensation mix in fairly predictable ways. The bottom line of this study is that, although we may have a global market for talent, compensation structures across countries are not likely to converge unless and until the underlying legal protections afforded shareholders converge. At the same time, the effect of agency costs in compensation design for non‐U.S. firms appears to be partly conditioned by the nation's legal system and the entire set of regulatory and other institutions that are affected by it.     

自律·他律·法治

在美国第一任总统华盛顿的老家,一个没有红绿灯的丁字路口,我们新眼目睹了这样一个有趣的现象:丁字路口的三方,赫然耸立着"STPO"指示牌,表示车到此处得先停下.     

Law,culture and investment performance: A cross-country analysis

This study investigates the investment performance of U.S. investors in foreign equity markets with different law origins and cultural characteristics and the investment performance of foreign investors in the U.S. markets. The finding is consistent with the information asymmetric hypothesis that investors perform better in foreign countries which have a similar legal system and cultural characteristics to their home markets than in counterparty countries. Differences in country-specific factors create information asymmetric barriers which slow information flow and result into poor investment performance.     

抵押资产价值评估:机构、技术与法律环境

抵押贷款是近年来商业银行信贷的主要方式。然而,由于抵押品自身存在的风险以及银行在抵押品评估中的疏漏,抵押贷款难以收回所导致的银行危机屡见不鲜。因此,抵押品价值评估机构体系的建立和设置,以及各种评估技术的创新和评估系统法律环境的建立,成为缓释银行信用危机、降低银行信贷风险的关键。     

Law,Finance, and Economic Growth

This paper examines how the legal environment affects financial development, and then asks how this in turn is linked to long-run economic growth. Financial intermediaries are better developed in countries with legal and regulatory systems that (1) give a high priority to creditors receiving the full present value of their claims on corporations, (2) enforce contracts effectively, and (3) promote comprehensive and accurate financial reporting by corporations. The data also indicate that the exogenous component of financial intermediary development—the component defined by the legal and regulatory environment—is positively associated with economic growth. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: G21, K12, O16     

Law,Stock Markets,and Innovation

We study a broad sample of firms across 32 countries and find that strong shareholder protections and better access to stock market financing lead to substantially higher long‐run rates of R&D investment, particularly in small firms, but are unimportant for fixed capital investment. Credit market development has a modest impact on fixed investment but no impact on R&D. These findings connect law and stock markets with innovative activities key to economic growth, and show that legal rules and financial developments affecting the availability of external equity financing are particularly important for risky, intangible investments not easily financed with debt.     

Law, Finance, and Firm Growth

We investigate how differences in legal and financial systems affect firms' use of external financing to fund growth. We show that in countries whose legal systems score high on an efficiency index, a greater proportion of firms use long-term external financing. An active, though not necessarily large, stock market and a large banking sector are also associated with externally financed firm growth. The increased reliance on external financing occurs in part because established firms in countries with well-functioning institutions have lower profit rates. Government subsidies to industry do not increase the proportion of firms relying on external financing.     

在商法与消费者法之间寻求平衡的保险法--美国《责任保险法重述》评述与启示

《责任保险法重述》可以说是美国保险法近年来发展的总结。《重述》以被保险人与保险人之间的权利义务关系为中心展开,以亲保险人规则(Pro Insurer Rule)与亲被保险人规则(Pro Insured Rule)之间的冲突博弈为主线,在保险合同解释、不实陈述、抗辩义务、强制执行与救济等方面对规则进行了澄清。伴随着金融消费者权益保护运动的兴起,我国保险法未来发展是更偏向于消费者权益保护法还是商法,长期以来存在争议。由于美国对我国保险法的规则制定和保险业务实践均有不同程度的影响,因此,以《重述》作为我们观察的制度样本,不仅可以从规则内容上为我国保险法改革提供借鉴;而且还提供了以"美国"作为方法论,探讨《重述》经历项目性质变更,在后金融危机时代保护保险消费者利益与维护保险人商业经营之间所作的努力与妥协,为我们回答"商法"与"消费者法"之争提供参考。     

The UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross‐border Insolvency and the Rule of Law

The rule of law is a concept that was often considered in the context of national legal systems. However, it is now commonly being promoted as significant in the transnational context. This paper addresses its importance within the transnational economic and commercial context, in particular in response to cross‐border insolvencies. It examines how the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross‐border Insolvency and its Guide to Enactment and Interpretation promote key tenets of the rule of law in transnational disputes arising out of businesses in financial distress. In particular, some examples are provided of cases from the Asia‐Pacific region in which the Model Law has been applied to demonstrate how the rule of law may be promoted in an insolvency context. Finally, the paper concludes that the adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross‐border Insolvency promotes transparency, accountability and predictability, which in turn support stability in financial systems and credit relationships and thus trade within a global market. This is a direct result of adherence to elements of the rule of law principle. Copyright © 2016 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd     

Religion,Corruption, and the Rule of Law

In a 207‐country sample, we find that rule of law and corruption are both associated with a country's religious heritage, thereby partially explaining the correlation between religion and economic growth found in previous research. We also show that our results change when we control for some variables lacking data for all countries in the sample but that these differences are attributable to changes in sample composition rather than the effects of the control variables. Our research suggests that researchers doing cross‐country analysis should distinguish between the effects of adding a control variable and the resulting sample composition effects.