Current attempts to reform financial markets presume that shareholder empowerment benefits shareholders. We investigate the wealth effects associated with the SEC's rule to facilitate director nominations by shareholders. Our results are not in line with shareholder empowerment creating value:...

Chhaochharia and Grinstein (2009) estimate that CEO pay decreases by 17% more in firms whose boards were not compliant with the recent NYSE/NASDAQ independence requirements than in firms that were compliant. We document that 65% of the magnitude is driven by a single outlier. All our attempts to...

We investigate the impact of corporate board meetings on corporate performance for a sample of 169 listed corporations from 2002 to 2007 in South Africa (SA). Our findings suggest a statistically significant and positive association between the frequency of corporate board meetings and corporate...

This study investigates the impact of Delaware law on the composition and size of the board of directors. Our empirical evidence reveals that Delaware firms have smaller and more independent boards than their non-Delaware counterparts. Given that we find no value-premium for firms that...

Using a novel dataset of outside directors' opinions from 2005 to 2009, we explore the determinants of outside directors' saying ‘no' and what happens after they say ‘no' at board meetings in listed Chinese firms. We find that the firms with more severe agency problems between controlling...

Islamic Finance has been growing at annual double-digit rates for about 40 years although even in conservative Islamic countries the Sharia with its prohibition of interest (ribâ) is not directly applicable law. Islamic Finance is voluntary and encompasses all kinds of financial services that...

This study investigates the extent to which South African listed corporations voluntarily disclose information on black economic empowerment (BEE) in their annual and sustainability reports using a sample of 75 listed corporations from 2003 to 2009. BEE is a form of socio-economic affirmative...

We document changes in New Zealand corporate board characteristics between 1995 and 2010, a period centred around the 2003 introduction of the NZX Corporate Governance Best Practice Code. Unsurprisingly, the representation of non-executive, independent and female directors on NZ boards rose...

We examine the crucial policy question of whether the South African (SA) stock market values a dual board leadership structure (DBLS) using a sample of 169 listed firms from 2002 to 2007. We find a significant positive link between DBLS and market valuation, but only in firms with independent...

This paper studies the effects of interlocked boards of directors on voluntary disclosures, governance practices and earnings quality. The Canadian environment, where director interlocks are prevalent, is examined. A checklist of twenty voluntary disclosure measures from proxy statements is...