CAPITAL,LABOR, AND THE FIRM: A STUDY OF GERMAN CODETERMINATION

Under the German corporate governance system of codetermination, employees are legally allocated control rights over corporate assets through seats on the supervisory board—that is, the board of nonexecutive directors. The supervisory board oversees the management board—the board of executive directors—approves or rejects its decisions, and appoints its members and sets their salaries. We empirically investigate the implications of this sort of labor participation in corporate decision making. We find that companies with equal representation of employees and shareholders on the supervisory board trade at a 31% stock market discount as compared with companies where employee representatives fill only one‐third of the supervisory board seats. We show that under equal representation, management board compensation provides incentives that are not conducive to furthering shareholders' interests, possibly because labor maximizes a different objective function than shareholders. We document that, under equal representation, companies have longer payrolls than their one‐third representation peers have. Finally, we provide evidence that shareholders respond to the allocation of control rights to labor by linking supervisory board compensation to firm performance and by leveraging up the firm. (JEL: G32, G34)     

受限股解禁的信号传递模型

股权分置改革后,上市公司大股东持有的非流通股于2007年1月开始陆续解禁流通。本文构建了一个受限股解禁的信号传递模型,证明了分离均衡在现实中的存在性,研究发现:中小股东可以通过第一大股东减持比例来评价公司价值,从而分离出公司真实类型,并通过股票价格将其均衡策略反映出来。     

外部治理环境、内部治理结构与合谋侵占实证分析

本文以中国A股上市公司2003-2005年期间的数据为样本,实证分析了公司内部治理结构和外部治理环境对控股股东与管理者合谋侵占公司利益的行为产生的影响。研究结果表明:控股股东的持股比例与其对上市公司的资金占用正相关,而非控股大股东的持股比例与控股大股东对上市公司的资金占用负相关;集团控股股东对上市公司的资金占用程度显著高于非集团控股股东;董事会中内部董事的比例与控股大股东的资金占用正相关;地区法治化水平和政府干预程度这两个外部治理环境因素也对控股股东的行为产生了显著影响,地区法治化水平越高,政府干预程度越低,控股股东占用上市公司的资金越少。     

The determinants of top management pay

Agency theory argues that companies need to structure their top management pay so as to attract, retain, motivate, and reward senior executives. It is implicit in this literature that managers should be rewarded for performance and that company size should not be a significant determinant of compensation. Empirical evidence in many countries has concluded, however, that size is a major determinant of management remuneration and the pay-for-performance link is very weak. This study examines the determinants of senior executives’ remuneration and bonus payments in Hong Kong companies using recently available data. We examine both the level of pay and changes in pay. Corporate size is found to be a major explanator of remuneration levels and of changes in the pay of the CEO and executive directors. Accounting profitability is also a significant explanator of compensation. Performance, as measured by stock returns, has little or no statistically significant relationship with pay; in fact, some of the results show negative relationships. Some share ownership characteristics have influences on the levels of remuneration. In particular, share ownership by directors and share ownership by institutional investors moderate the compensation levels. In contrast, corporate governance variables have little association with change in pay. Overall, the results imply agency arguments that advocate pay-for-performance compensation schemes are not major factors in setting top management remuneration in Hong Kong.     

股权质押与市值管理:基于中国沪深股市A股上市公司的实证检验

本文以沪深两市上市公司为研究对象,基于2012-2016年的样本数据,运用STATA14探讨了上市公司发生股权质押后,相较不存在股权质押的公司是否会更有可能进行市值管理,以及股权质押、股权激励和市值管理三者之间的传导机制。基于相关数据的实证结果显示,控股股东在发生股权质押行为后,为了避免股价发生异常波动或者持续下跌从而引发公司治理层面的风险,相较不存在控股股东股权质押情形的公司的确更有可能进行市值管理;进一步分析发现,股权质押后,控股股东会通过股权激励这种手段来进行市值管理。     

Institutional investors: the vote as a tool of governance

Institutional investors are increasingly expected to engage with their investee companies to try to help ensure that the investee companies have an appropriate corporate governance structure and that they operate according to corporate governance best practice. There are a number of ‘tools of governance’ which institutional investors might utilise including constructive dialogue and voting. In this paper, the growth of institutional investors is discussed together with the development of the vote as one of the most powerful means that institutional investors have at their disposal. The cases of two of the UK’s largest and most active institutional investors are discussed to show how the vote is used in practice. The resolutions which tend to be the most contentious are those relating to the appointment/re-election of directors and board composition; remuneration packages and incentive schemes; and strategic issues that may impact on shareholders’ rights/ownership interests. The paper also contains an analysis of the resolutions which occur most frequently together with the average levels of dissent on such issues in various European countries: Austria, Belgium, France, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The barriers to voting that may arise are examined; such barriers include control enhancing mechanisms which are prevalent in many European countries as well as on a wider global basis.     

美国企业现行股票期权计划存在的问题与争论

90年代以后,由于美国的股票市场、税收政策以及会计准则等都有力地促进了股票期权计划的发展,使股票期权在激励经理人员以及协调经营者与股东之间的利益关系等方面都发挥了良好的作用。但是,这一计划的实施并不完美,在实践中也暴露出许多不可忽视的问题,如经理人员的报酬与公司业绩脱节、激励作用弱化、股东利益受到损害等等,这些问题在西方引起广泛的关注与争论,同时对我国的公司治理也有一定借鉴与启示。     

政府行为、股权安排与公司治理的有效性——基于盈余质量视角的研究

本文以我国2000至2005年期间A股上市公司为研究对象,探讨在政府控制的特殊经济环境下,股权安排对会计盈余质量的影响,试图从会计契约角度对公司治理有效性做出新的诠析。本研究发现,控股股东对盈余质量的影响是非线性的,而第二大股东则对控股股东的壕沟防御效应起到有效的遏制作用。研究还发现,在政府行政干预力度加大和内部人利益侵害行为加剧的双重推动下,国有上市公司财务报告质量将进一步被降低。     

Executive compensation in banks: insights from CEO equity incentives and securitization transactions

This paper investigates whether CEO equity incentives promote risk-taking activities in the financial industry. Prior research shows that, during the recent credit crisis, banks whose CEOs had high equity incentives performed significantly worse than banks whose CEOs had low equity incentives. A possible explanation for this result is that the incentive to boost stock price induced CEOs to take risks that turned out to be extremely costly. Focusing on securitization transactions that were among the fundamental causes of the financial crisis and using a sample of US financial institutions, the paper provides evidence that banks whose CEOs had high equity incentives engaged in securitization transactions to a greater extent than did financial institutions guided by CEOs with low equity incentives. Moreover, the paper shows that CEOs with high equity incentives securitized riskier loans than did CEOs with low incentives. This study helps to clarify the role of equity-based compensation in promoting risk-taking behaviors in banks.     

企业社会责任、媒体报道与股价崩盘风险

理论上企业披露社会责任信息既可能抑制股价崩盘风险,亦可能加剧股价崩盘风险;新闻媒体作为社会责任披露的重要载体在其中既可能弱化也可能强化这种影响,对这些问题的探讨是近年来公司金融领域研究的热点,但学者对当前的研究结果尚存在较多争论。鉴于此,本文首先在理论上导出社会责任披露对股价崩盘风险的双向作用机制,然后引入新闻媒体研究其可能的传导途径。基于我国A股市场所有上市公司2010-2018年面板数据的研究结果显示：上市公司通过披露企业社会责任指数能够显著降低股价崩盘风险;企业履行社会责任会显著增加媒体报道的数量,而媒体报道数量增加能够显著抑制股价崩盘风险,即媒体报道在企业社会责任影响股价崩盘风险的过程中起到中介作用;进一步的拓展研究发现：企业社会责任指数中的股东责任对股价崩盘风险影响最大,而供应商、客户和消费者权益、社会责任的影响不显著;与中性媒体报道相比,正面媒体报道和负面媒体报道的中介作用效果更强。     

Does the compensation level of outside director depend on its personal profile? Some evidence from UK

Combining human capital theory and equity theory, we developed and tested a model in which the outside directors’ total cash compensation is related to the outsider’s profile, as well as to the board and firm characteristics. Consistent with our model, characteristics of the outsider’s profile, in terms of his/her role and responsibility, meeting activities and length of service, are relevant. Only the director’s popularity, as a part of his/her human capital, has a significant effect on his/her compensation. Our empirical results confirm the necessity to create a stronger link between the remuneration policies of the outsider directors and their contribution in a board, in terms of human capital. The remuneration policies adopted by firms should be linked to practices on corporate governance useful for helping outsiders contribute confidently to their work of the board and receive ongoing support and information so they can develop their understanding of the total environment within they work. Then, we suggest having recourse to qualifications and professional skills as well as to specific training or board induction programmes defined by firms themselves. Finally, the Combined Code should promote the adoption and spreading of such practices on market.     

Shareholders Should Welcome Knowledge Workers as Directors

The most influential approach of corporate governance, the view of shareholders’ supremacy does not take into consideration that the key task of modern corporations is to generate and transfer firm-specific knowledge. It proposes that, in order to overcome the widespread corporate scandals, the interests of top management and directors should be increasingly aligned to shareholder’ interests by making the board more responsible to shareholders, and monitoring of top management by independent outside directors should be strengthened. Corporate governance reform needs to go in another direction altogether. Firm-specific knowledge investments are, like financial investments, not ex ante contractible, leaving investors open to exploitation by shareholders. Employees therefore refuse to make firm-specific investments. To gain a sustainable competitive advantage, there must be an incentive to undertake such firm-specific investments. Three proposals are advanced to deal with this dilemma: (1) The board should rely more on insiders. (2) The insiders should be elected by those employees of the firm who are making firm-specific knowledge investments. (3) The board should be chaired by a neutral person. These proposals have major advantages: they provide incentives for knowledge investors; they countervail the dominance of executives; they encourage intrinsic work motivation and loyalty to the firm by strengthening distributive and procedural justice, and they ensure diversity on the board while lowering transaction costs. These proposals for reforming the board may help to overcome the crisis corporate governance is in. At the same time, they provide a step in the direction of a more adequate theory of the firm as a basis for corporate governance.     

管理层股权激励与企业未来盈余定价——来自中国资本市场的证据

本文探讨管理层股权激励对企业未来盈余定价的影响,并进一步将企业未来盈余分解为行业成分和公司特质成分,考察股权激励对不同成分未来盈余定价的影响,以及不同模式股权激励对上述关系影响的差异。利用实施股权激励的中国A股上市公司2006-2016年间的数据,本文发现:(1)股权激励提高了当期股票收益率与企业未来盈余的相关性。说明管理层股权激励有助于投资者对企业未来盈余定价;(2)管理层股权激励并不影响投资者对行业成分未来盈余定价,但会加速投资者对公司特质未来盈余定价;(3)管理层的股票型激励有助于投资者对企业未来盈余定价,同时也能加速投资者对公司特质未来盈余定价,但股票期权激励并无上述作用。研究结果意味着,整体而言股权激励能够缓解管理层与股东之间信息披露的代理问题,激励管理层向外部投资者披露更多高质量的公司基本面信息,从而降低投资者对公司特质未来盈余信息的搜寻成本,最终通过加速公司特质未来盈余信息融入股价来促进投资者对企业未来盈余定价。本文揭示了管理层股权激励促进投资者对企业未来盈余定价的微观机制,同时,研究结论对提高中国证券市场的信息效率提供了重要的理论参考。     

Board compensation and ownership structure: empirical evidence for Italian listed companies

This paper investigates the relationships among corporate ownership, the level of board compensation, and firms’ future performance within Italian listed companies. Board compensation could be related to corporate ownership characteristics, like the type of controlling shareholder, ownership concentration, the separation between cash flow and voting rights, and the presence of shareholders’ agreements. The evidence of high levels of board compensation associated with certain governance characteristics could signal, in a principal-agent framework, rent extraction by entrenched managers or by controlling shareholders versus minority shareholders; high board compensation, however, could be related to the need to hire directors with higher professional standing and also to the desire to create a network with other companies through the enlargement of the board, according to a social network view. In this paper we disentangle this issue showing the relationship between excess board compensation and future performance: examining firms listed on the Milan Stock Exchange over the period 1995–2002, we show that board compensation is linked to many governance characteristics, but excess compensation is never positively related to future performance. For founder family firms, in particular, high board compensation is associated with (a) smaller board size; (b) higher proportion of family members on the board; (c) lower future performance. The whole evidence therefore doesn’t support the hypothesis suggested by the social network view, but is consistent with a rent extraction hypothesis. These results could add new empirical evidence to the recent debate on the need for global remuneration reform. According to our results, some control mechanism and an increase in transparency of executive compensation schemes could be appropriate.     

上市公司股权激励、行权价操纵与送转股

以2006年1月1日～2008年7月30日沪深两市首次披露股票期权激励计划的上市公司为研究对象,运用配对样本T检验和逻辑回归分析方法,研究实施股权激励公司的经理人的行权价操纵行为及其影响因素.实证分析结果表明,股票股利和公积金转增是经理人操纵其股票期权收益的主要方式,影响送转股的主要因素包括经理人的激励比例、股权集中度和股价涨幅等.大股东拥有比较强的控制地位,对经理人的操纵行为有一定的抑制作用,股价涨幅是影响送转股水平的最主要因素,说明采用股票期权激励方式的公司,经理人有目的的利用提高送转股水平方式降低行权价格,通过市场的"价格幻觉"提高股权激励收益.     

股权分割、公司业绩与投资者保护

本文首先回顾了股权分割与公司业绩的相关文献 ,发现并没有一致的实证依据证明股权分割损害了上市公司的业绩。在此基础上 ,我们构建了一个更为广泛的上市公司1995～2001年的面板数据样本 ,对上市公司股权分割与公司业绩的关系以及公司上市后的业绩变迁进行了实证的研究 ,结果发现:(1)公司的业绩与非流通股 (国家股、法人股 )比例呈显著的U形关系 ,非流通股独大或独小并没有对公司业绩产生不利影响 ,相反适度混合的股权结构对公司业绩是最不利的;(2)上市公司在上市后的经营业绩整体呈逐年加速下滑趋势 ,而股权分割的差异对该趋势无显著的影响。我们认为 ,把股权分割当成是中国股市问题的核心是具有误导性的 ,私有产权和全流通并不能消除股票市场的委托代理问题。我国股票市场问题的关键在于缺乏有效的投资者保护机制 ,无法对政府、大股东和管理层的剥削行为进行约束 ,导致市场诚信的丧失。在制度性缺失的环境中 ,不同性质的公司控制者的行为方式不会有本质上的差异。我们认为股权问题的解决必须以投资者保护为基础 ,在我国大陆法系的架构下 ,当务之急是推动立法保护私有产权的合法权益 ,并通过引入“集体诉讼”和“辩方举证”机制加强投资者保护的效率     

Board of directors and insider trading with share repurchase programs

This study examines the relationship between insider trading and board of directors’ characteristics around stock repurchase announcements. It is hypothesized that information disparity between insiders and shareholders from share repurchases announcements creates opportunities for insiders to time their trading. However, there is little evidence on whether board characteristics reduce the probability of insider trading with repurchase announcements. Using data from firms listed on Forbes 500 between 1998 and 2004, we found that insider trading is related to share repurchase announcements. In order to focus on board of directors’ role, we controlled for board characteristics that may change the repurchase decision. Our results provide corroborative evidence of insider net selling around repurchase announcements and the advantages of board characteristics to offset insider trading. In particular, the results suggest that board tenure, directors’ ownership and board directorship change positively insider trading around repurchase announcements. Hence, Securities and Exchange Commission should consider rigorous restrictions on share repurchase announcements and be aware of potential influence of the corporate governance device.     

股票分析师的羊群行为对公司股价同步性的影响分析

股价"同涨同跌"是我国股票市场的一种重要现象。多股集体"暴跌"会给公司和投资者造成严重的损失,因而股价同步性的问题受到监管者和学术界的广泛关注。本文以2010-2017年股票分析师对上市公司做出的预测为主要研究对象,验证了股票分析师的羊群行为与公司股价同步性间的关系,讨论了机构投资者和市场情绪的作用机制。实证结果表明我国股票分析师的羊群行为是"非信息驱动"的真羊群行为,这种行为降低了市场上的特质信息含量,从而增加了公司的股价同步性。上述关系在熊市中更为显著,并且分析师与机构投资者之间的利益冲突会加剧其羊群行为对股价同步性的影响。本文的研究对理解如何降低股价崩盘风险、提高我国股票市场的信息传递效率具有十分重要的理论和实践意义。     

股权比例、过度担保与隐蔽掏空——来自我国上市公司对子公司担保的证据

本文借鉴LLSv的掏空模型,模型化推导了控股股东对上市公司的隐蔽掏空模式,建立了控股股东持股比例与掏空程度的分段函数关系.以2004年我国沪深A股上市公司对子公司担保的386起事件为样本,并把样本分为过度担保组和适度担保组,运用事件研究法进行实证检验.发现过度担保样本组累计超额收益率显著为负,而适度担保组的市场反应为正但不显著,由此推测过度担保的上市公司具有向控股股东输送利益的倾向.多元回归结果表明,对于第一大股东持股比例和国家持股比例的回归系数而言,60%均是其有效的临界点.当大股东持股比例低于60%时,大股东存在通过上市公司对子公司担保的方式掏空上市公司的现象,但回归系数不显著;当持股比例高于60%时,则产生了显著的利益协调效应.能有效地抑制掏空.通过分类变量和股权临界变量的多种组合,回归发现,国有性质的上市公司被控股股东掏空程度更高;与第一大股东持股比例变量相比.国家持股比例变量的股权临界值对CAR的影响更加显著.     

Corporate governance convergence in Germany through shareholder activism: Impact of the Deutsche Boerse bid for London Stock Exchange

This case study examines the shareholder revolt initiated by a small activist shareholder, which eventually thwarted a takeover bid by Deutsche Boerse for the London Stock Exchange and forced the resignation of two of its highest profile board members. Primarily the case marks the emergence of the Anglo-American style shareholder rights movement in a country that offers only limited power to the shareholders of corporations. In the process it illustrates the mechanisms by which functional convergence of corporate governance regimes can occur long before the legal framework catches up. In Germany, the corporate governance regime requires stakeholder interests to be maximised rather than the sole interests of shareholders. This paper chronicles the shareholder actions that forced the takeover bid to be abandoned and seeks to provide an understanding of the motivations behind the activists’ campaign and the process by which they were able to overcome difficult odds and win their campaign. In this respect, it provides a useful insight into the processes used by relatively small investors to exercise their rights to thwart a takeover offer and topple some powerful corporate executives. Furthermore, the case illustrates how a single issue such as the strategic logic or the value creation potential of a takeover bid can rapidly spiral to become a wider campaign over deeply rooted governance concerns at targeted companies. Event study analysis reveals the stock market reaction to the activists’ intervention. Thirdly, the case sheds light on the importance of communication between management and shareholders especially when corporate decisions of great strategic import, such as a takeover, are being implemented. The globalisation of stock markets is empowering shareholders to assert their rights and their activism is driving corporate governance regimes towards greater convergence and recognition of the primacy of shareholder interests. Overall, the case raises a number of important issues regarding the corporate governance regime in Germany, the challenges posed by overseas investors, and the international convergence of corporate governance regimes. The case further suggests an additional mechanism by which international governance systems can converge functionally towards a common theme even if the form of national regimes remains largely unaltered. Our results are consistent with the institutional theory perspective of coercive isomorphism in adopting the shareholder value paradigm by Deutsche Boerse.