We propose that when firm agents, such as managers and employees, perceive the board to have congruent values about ESG activities with them, then they are more willing to commit their human capital and effort to the ESG activities to increase firm value. Potentially positive NPV ESG projects...

We study whether the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms varies depending on the characteristics of the executives subject to these mechanisms - namely, their “psychological type”, as proxied by their history of legal infractions. In particular, we examine insider trading, where...

We study the role of facial appearance in corporate director (re-)elections by means of director photographs published in annual reports. We find that shareholders use inferences from facial appearance in corporate elections, as a better (higher rated) appearance measure of a director reduces...

We present evidence that, following the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, firms responded to the increased requirement for outside director monitoring by substituting insiders with outside directors who have social or professional connections to their CEOs. This substitution was most...

We study the role of facial appearance in corporate director (re-)elections by means of director photographs published in annual reports. We find that shareholders use inferences from facial appearance in corporate elections, as a better (higher rated) appearance measure of a director reduces...

We test the ability of boards of directors to eliminate the negative impact of CEO behavior on payout policy. We contribute to the literature by testing the ability of boards to influence CEO payout propensity. First, we show that if the compensation scheme of a CEO does not stimulate him or her...

Although prior research has claimed that audit committees with more expertise secure better auditors and enjoy higher quality earnings, a deeper understanding of this premise compels consideration of the factors that less-expert audit committees consider when choosing auditors if indeed they are...

This paper intends to scrutinize the Japan’s Corporate Governance Code from the perspective of its subtitle “sustainable growth of the company and improvement of medium- to long-term corporate value.” The first half of the paper focuses on the significance of this Code and related issues...

We examine Korean business groups' transitions from circular-shareholding to (relatively simple) pyramidal-shareholding structures during 2011-2018. The transition did not impact chaebol families' degrees of control or incentive conflicts in firms belonging to circular-shareholdings ("loops"),...

A key objective of shareholder activists is to persuade a firm’s management to change its strategy. CFOs play an important role in negotiations, nonetheless activism research mainly focuses on CEOs. We examine the relationship between CFO overconfidence and the likelihood to get targeted by...