For 174 large Japanese corporations during 1992-1996, we find that top executive pay is higher in firms with weaker corporate governance mechanisms, controlling for standard economic determinants of pay. We use management ownership and family control (“the ownership mechanisms”), and...

This paper examines how the qualitative characteristics of annual reports vary across different phases of the corporate life cycle. We measure the complexity, tone, and sentiment of 10-Ks, and classify firms into their distinct life cycle phases. Considering a sample of 24,268 firm-year...