Managerial Ownership, Corporate Governance, and Firms’ Exporting Decisions : Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

Using a large panel of Chinese listed companies over the period 2004-2010, we document that both export propensity and intensity increase with managerial ownership up to a point of around 23%-27%, and decrease thereafter. In addition, we find a negative association between state ownership and export intensity. Finally, we observe that the larger the board size, the lower the firm's export propensity and intensity, and that firms with a higher proportion of independent directors in the board are generally less likely to export. These findings are mainly driven by privately-controlled firms during the post-2006 period