We study the determinants and effects of the relative compensation of top executives and lower-level employees. First, we show that CEO–employee pay ratios depend on the balance of power between the CEO (relative to the board) and ordinary employees (relative to management). Second, our...

We investigate an increasingly prevalent CEO succession strategy: recruiting CEOs from the board of directors (director-CEOs). Director-CEOs might be hired in a planned succession because they combine outsiders' new perspectives with insiders' firm-specific knowledge. Alternatively, directors...

Outside directors' monitoring effectiveness is curtailed by information asymmetry between boards and management. Connections between independent directors and non-CEO executives may overcome this challenge by facilitating information sharing between the connected parties. Such connections can...

This study examines the impact of accounting standard adoption complexity on financial reporting quality and market outcomes. We capture adoption complexity by uniquely using adoption-related disclosures required under Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) 74. We examine the adoption outcomes of the...