We examine whether allowing publicly listed firms to adopt equity-based compensation increases shareholder value for firms domiciled in weak institutional environments. We test our idea using a series of regulations in China that allowed publicly listed Chinese firms to adopt equity-based...

Executive compensation serves as a metric by which investors measure the quality of a firm's governance. In this paper, I explore how the signaling role of executive compensation impacts the compensation decisions of boards. I show that reputational concerns often cause boards to adopt pay...