Huang, Jin; Li, Dongling; Guo, Fei - In: China journal of accounting research : CJAR 19 (2026) 1, pp. 1-33
We show that executives' early-life poverty experiences reduce both internal (executive-employee) and external (executive-peer) corporate pay disparities. Three mechanisms drive this effect: increased risk aversion in poverty-exposed executives, strategic avoidance of negative media coverage to...