Bank risk-taking and market discipline: Evidence from CoCo bonds in Korea

We investigate whether the risk profile of contingent convertible (CoCo) bonds is well-priced by testing the sensitivity of bond spreads to bank asset volatility. While equity holders (bankers) have an incentive to make riskier investments to trigger the write-off, such risk-taking behavior can be contained if CoCo bond investors punish it by demanding higher returns. We have found that investors in the Korean financial market understand the risk profile of CoCo bonds and require higher returns for the additional bank risk, which suggests the presence of market discipline with regard to CoCo bonds.     

National culture and bank risk-taking

We investigate the relation between national cultural values and bank risk. Despite the rigid transnational regulatory oversight of systemic European banks, we find evidence of an economically significant association between cultural values and domestic bank risk. Specifically, we report a positive (negative) association between the cultural values of individualism and hierarchy (trust) and domestic bank risk-taking. Consistent with our predictions, this relation weakened during the recent financial crisis and does not hold for global banks, regardless of the period under investigation. Our findings are robust to endogeneity tests that mitigate concerns regarding reverse causality and confounding effects affecting our conclusions.     

Inside debt and firm risk-taking: Evidence from the UK pension reform

This paper provides new evidence on the relation between CEO inside debt and firm risk-taking by exploiting the change in the tax treatment of UK pensions following two pension amendments. The 2006 pension reform introduces the annual and lifetime allowance for UK pension schemes, significantly increasing income taxes associated with CEO inside debt. The 2011 allowance cut, which substantially reduces the annual allowance introduced in 2006, further increases income taxes on inside debt. We find that CEO inside debt, in the form of executive pensions declines after the 2006 reform while cash-in-lieu increases significantly. This effect is more severe after the 2011 allowance cut than the 2006 pension reform. UK firms appear to substitute away from pensions towards cash-in-lieu, where income taxes are less punishing. If the association between CEO inside debt and firm risk-taking is causal, we should observe a change of risk-taking after the decline of inside debt. Our results, which exploit the exogenous nature of the reforms, show that the decline of CEO pensions does not lead to any change in firm risk-taking. This result suggests that no causal relationship exists between CEO inside debt and firm risk-taking. Our results extend the inside debt literature, where empirical evidence is mainly documented in the US. Contrary to findings in the US, our evidence suggests that the use of CEO inside debt is motivated to minimise income tax rather than a tool to moderate firm risk.     

Modeling the relationships among emotional intelligence,sensation-seeking and risk-taking attitudes of university students in Hong Kong

This study investigated the risk-taking attitudes of 305 Chinese university students in Hong Kong by the prediction of sensation-seeking. To further understand the prediction of sensation-seeking, emotional intelligence (EI) was applied. First, the 30-item DOPSERT scale was used to examine the risk-taking attitude of students in different domains (ethical, financial, health/safety, social, and recreational). Then, a 12-item sensation-seeking subscale taken from the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale was applied to examine the participants’ levels of sensation-seeking. In this study, sensation-seeking was divided into the categories of exciting activities seeking and novel activities seeking (NAS). Finally, the 16-item Wong and Law’s Emotional Intelligence Scale was applied to examine participants’ use of self-emotion appraisal, others’ emotion appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion. The results of this study showed that for this group of Chinese university students, the use of emotion and regulation of emotion could significantly predict exciting activities seeking. NAS, however, could predict recreational risk-taking attitude and health and safety risk-taking attitude. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model was applied to understand the relationships among EI, sensation-seeking and risk-taking attitudes. The variables of EI and sensation-seeking were considered as factors within an ontogenic system of the ecological model. Few studies to date have focused on the relationship between EI and risk-taking. The results of this study provided support for a clear relation between EI and risk-taking. To be more specific, the use of emotion and the regulation of emotion had an effect on exciting activities seeking. This study also indicated how educators and counselors can make use of the findings to better control the risk-taking attitudes of young people, so they will be less likely to engage in risky behaviors.     

Corporate risk-taking,returns and the nature of major shareholders: Evidence from prospect theory

This paper analyses the relation between corporate risk-taking and firm performance for a sample of international listed firms over the period 2001–2013. We consider the approaches on individual behavior (specifically prospect theory) to propose a U-shaped relation between corporate risk-taking and firm returns. We find that firms adopt an attitude of risk-seeking when the expected performance is below a target performance (to avoid an anticipated loss) and an attitude of risk averse when the performance exceeds that target. This relation is affected by the economic context and the nature of the major shareholder: Firms controlled by families or institutional investors react more conservatively (taking or avoiding risk) to changes in corporate results. We are aware that our results, are affected by both the theoretical model and the temporal and spatial framework used.     

Ex ante CEO severance pay and risk-taking in the financial services sector

We examine 533 CEO severance contracts for financial services firms from 1997 to 2007 and find that ex ante severance pay is positively associated with risk-taking after controlling for the incentive effects provided by equity-based compensation. We report a positive causal relation between the amount of severance pay and risk-taking using popular market-based risk measures as well as the distance-to-default and the Z-score. We also find that severance pay encourages excessive risk-taking using metrics such as tail risk and asset quality. Our results are consistent with the risk-shifting argument and provide support for recent reforms on severance pay in the financial sector.     

Revisiting the risk-taking effect of executive stock options on firm performance

While the relation between equity-based compensation and firm performance has been widely discussed, the findings on how executive stock options (ESOs) affect firm value are still inconclusive. This research examines the risk-taking effect of ESOs on firm performance by taking into consideration managers' personal risk aversion. A three-stage-least-squares approach is adopted to examine a simultaneous system of equations describing option compensation, risk-taking, and firm performance. Evidence confirms that ESOs increase managerial risk-taking, but such risk-taking is constrained by managers' personal risk aversion. In addition, evidence indicates that managerial risk-taking induced by ESOs would increase both long-term and near-term stock returns. The negative impact on near-term and the positive impact on long-term returns on investment imply that it takes time for accounting performance to reflect the risk-taking effect of ESOs. These results further indicate that managers focus their concerns more on stock risk and return rather than near-term accounting results.     

Corruption and Banking Stability: Evidence from Emerging Economies

This article investigates the effect of corruption on banking stability using data from banks in emerging markets. The analysis first reveals that a lower level of corruption had a positive impact on bank stability and is associated with fewer credit losses and with more moderate credit growth. It then highlights the importance of bank and country characteristics in identifying the asymmetric effects of corruption on bank stability. Our evidence suggests that stability of banks that are acting in a country that has not adopted a corporate governance code or is not a member of the European Union is affected more by the corruption. Also, in countries with higher levels of corruption banks could increase their stability if they implement rigorous corporate governance practices.     

代际传承对家族企业风险承担的影响

家族企业代际传承已经成为学术界和实务界关注的一个焦点。文章尝试建立一个风险分析框架，深入分析代际传承对企业风险承担的影响机理及经济后果。基于2004-2016年我国沪深两市A股上市家族企业的研究数据，文章以家族二代继任者成为董事长或总经理的时点作为代际传承始点进行实证分析。研究结果表明：家族企业进入代际传承实施期后，企业风险承担水平会降低。与“家族—家族”类别的接班方式相比，在“职业—家族”类别的接班方式下，代际传承对企业风险承担水平的负效应更明显；创始人弱参与下的企业风险承担水平低于创始人强参与下的企业风险承担水平。此外，代际传承通过企业风险承担这项路径引起企业会计绩效下降。     

同辈竞争影响基金经理冒险行为的机制研究

随着基金业的蓬勃发展,基金已成为我国资本市场的重要组成部分。基金市场竞争的日益激烈使基金经理的冒险行为备受关注,现有文献主要基于“业绩—资金流—报酬—冒险”的分析范式,从基金业绩排名角度研究竞争对基金经理冒险行为的影响,但鲜有文献研究市场竞争强度对基金经理冒险行为的影响,更缺乏相关经验证据。本文认为,同辈基金（具有相似风格的基金）之间的竞争对基金经理冒险行为具有显著影响：在基金投资收益不确定和同辈基金存在替代效应的情形下,同辈竞争的加剧会增强投资者基金风格偏好对基金业绩偏好的掩盖,导致投资者业绩追逐降低,减弱“业绩—资金流—报酬”机制的激励效应,进而对基金经理的冒险动机和行为产生抑制作用;在冒险行为结果不确定和竞争具有收益递减效应的情形下,同辈竞争加剧会导致基金业绩下降,使冒险行为的预期收益降低,同时也使基金经理被解职的风险增加,进而抑制基金经理的冒险动机和行为。采用2005—2020年中国开放式基金数据的分析发现：同辈基金数量与基金的风险调整比率、重仓股集中度和市场偏离度均显著负相关,表明同辈竞争的加剧会使基金投资组合的风险水平下降;基金业绩与下期同辈基金平均资金流显著负相关,表明同辈基金的替代效应明显;同辈基金数量增加会弱化基金较同辈超额收益对基金资金流的正向影响,表明同辈竞争的加剧会降低投资者业绩追逐;基金业绩对同辈竞争影响基金经理冒险行为的部分中介效应明显,表明同辈竞争的加剧可以通过降低基金业绩来抑制基金经理冒险行为。相比已有文献,本文主要从三个方面进行了拓展和深化：一是从理论上探讨基金市场竞争强度增加对基金经理冒险行为的抑制作用;二是通过三维风格空间网络对同辈基金进行识别,构建一种基于风格相似性刻画基金市场竞争强度的方法;三是采用中国开放式基金的数据进行实证检验,为同辈竞争的基金经理冒险行为抑制效应提供经验证据。本文揭示了同辈竞争加剧对基金经理冒险行的抑制效应及其影响机制,为进一步优化基金市场结构和规范基金市场管理提供了经验借鉴和政策启示。应加强对基金申报的宏观调控和基金运行监管,使基金市场竞争维持在适度的范围内,有效发挥同辈竞争对基金经理行为的改善效应,进而促进基金业健康发展和人民财富增长。