This paper examines the economic consequences of the introduction of regulations that mandate listed firms adopt outside directors. The Japanese Companies Act was revised in June 2014, and this revision required listed firms to adopt at least one outside director. Although half of the listed...

A global business convergence exists, making international business easier and more mainstream. Over the last decade, social activists, academics, government agencies, shareholder groups, and other investors have argued for greater diversity in U.S. businesses, including making public company...

This paper provides a theoretical model to examine when and how boards of directors can utilize outside experts who provide second opinions to assist them in 1) monitoring managers with career concerns, and 2) approving firm investments. Because an agreeable second opinion serves as a signaling...

In today's world of corporate governance, the board of directors of a publicly held firm (public company) will almost certainly be made up of a majority of independent directors. Armed with such independence, it is hoped that corporate boards can better monitor for managerial opportunism and...

In this paper we argue that boards of directors lack the mandate, the incentives and the ability to control insiders, especially in jurisdictions where the main agency problem arises between controlling and minority shareholders. We analyze the problems that render independents an inefficient...

This note offers an initial response to a study released earlier this month by Martijn Cremers and Simone Sepe, “Board Declassification Activism: The Financial Value of the Shareholder Rights Project.” Putting aside methodological questions about their analysis and accepting their results...

Corporate governance (gongsi zhili) is a concept whose time has come in China, and the institution of the independent director is a major part of this concept. Policymakers in several countries such as the United Kingdom and Japan have turned to independent directors as an important element of...

Performance pay, at least as usually understood, is no good idea for non-executive directors. They have to supervise and control or in some situations even to fire and replace the executive managers. This means that their performance as supervisors is totally different from the performance of...

This study examines whether audit committee and board characteristics are related to earnings management by the firm. A negative relation is found between audit committee independence and abnormal accruals. A negative relation is also found between board independence and abnormal accruals....

We examine how boardroom gender diversity reforms impact the monitoring role of institutional investors. Using reforms from 25 countries that aim to improve gender diversity on boards, we find that the reforms increase the association between institutional ownership and subsequent female...