We study how growth-promoting bonuses - bonuses that are explicitly tied to size measures such as sales - impact firms' acquisition activity. Firms whose executives are granted growth-promoting bonuses are more likely to do acquisitions. Acquisitions by such firms tend to destroy value for...

We argue that CEOs have different attitudes toward the firm's stakeholders and that these differences in attitudes affect the firm's decision making. We hypothesize that these differences stem from differences in political ideology: Liberal CEOs, as compared to their conservative...

We examine how negative liquidity shocks to households propagate to firms. We show that higher taxes on the personal home of private firms' controlling shareholders are associated with higher dividend and salary payments from firms to shareholders and with lower cash holdings, investments,...

Previous research shows that incentives to increase earnings-per-share cause firm to increase stock repurchases and reduce investment and employment. It is natural to expect firms to cut less productive investment and employment first, which could lead to a positive effect on firm-level...

Using a proprietary dataset, we study whether CEO political ideology affected how S&P 500 firms reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic. We hypothesize that conservative CEOs are more likely to downsize their workforce while meeting dividend expectations. Conversely, other CEOs should be less likely to...

This study examines whether the CEO uses share repurchases to sell her equity grants at inflated stock prices, a concern regularly voiced in politics and media. We find that the timing of buyback programs and equity compensation, i.e., the granting, vesting, and selling of equity, is largely...

We show that signals of higher education, professional experience, and access to professional networks are more valuable for women's career advancement than for men's. On average, additional qualification signals increase male directors' probability to become CEO by 10.1%, while this probability...

This article reviews research conducted from 2011-2020 on the corporate governance of Korean firms. The purpose is to promote academic interest in Korean corporate governance research especially among non-Korean scholars and to provide guidance to young Korean scholars who are working in this...

Global investors often demand independent assessments of firms’ governance mechanisms. However, the supply of such evaluations is subject to two important limitations: assessment error and lack of coverage in certain regions. This paper studies a recent initiative that addresses these...

This is the first comprehensive study of the distribution of voting rights to shareholders. Only those owning stock on the record date may vote. Firms, however, reveal that date after the fact 91% of the time. With controversial votes, firms are more likely to do the opposite, and this is...