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...

Shareholder say-on-pay votes allow institutional investors to influence the incentives of managers and, consequently, corporate behaviour. Surprisingly, the preferences of investors on executive compensation have been largely overlooked in the ongoing debates on sustainable corporate behaviour....

In Closer Look, we highlight significant “holes” in our knowledge of corporate governance. These are central issues where insufficient or inadequate study has left us unable to answer basic questions, and where key assumptions relied upon by experts have not been verified or validated. While...

Inspired by the limited research regarding the influence of CEO succession origin on corporate misconduct, this study draws on organizational identification theory and agency theory to examine this issue. Empirical analysis indicates that insider CEOs significantly constrain corporate misconduct...

The growing compensation disparity between CEOs and employees has become a global concern, underscoring the need for regulatory measures to ensure fair and equitable remuneration practices. Drawing insights from China's government regulation of CEO compensation (GRCC) for state-owned enterprises...

The subjective judgment and discretionary actions of a manager can influence the core strategy, investment, operations, and decision-making of a company. Managerial actions from the top, particularly the board, plays a vital role in addressing this inclination. While scholars have shown interest...

We model firm executives' compensation incentives when ESG metrics are added to their performance-vested contracts. Drawing on multitasking theory, we predict that incentives tied to standard accounting or financial metrics are reduced after introducing ESG metrics to induce executives to...

This paper investigates the impact of corporate ESG performance on internal pay gaps using data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2023. Our study finds that, after controlling for relevant variables and fixed effects for firms and years, corporate ESG performance significantly...