A questão da separação entre propriedade e controle pode prejudicar o desempenho das empresas. Estruturas mais concentradas possivelmente são mais efetivas para dirimir estes problemas, mas também podem facilitar a expropriação de acionistas minoritários. Em compensação, existe pouca evidência de que esta separação venha diminuindo ao longo do tempo (HOLDERNESS, KROSZNER E SHEEHAN, 2000). Devido a esses fatores, a tese visa analisar a influência da estrutura de propriedade e dos aspetos da governança corporativa (compensação dos executivos) na eficiência das empresas de capital aberto brasileiras, onde é identificada uma maior concentração de ações nas mãos de um grupo restrito de pessoas. O estudo une técnicas de otimização estática através de Análise Envoltória de Dados (DEA) para identificar a eficiência das empresas de capital aberto, com Dados em Painel para identificar a influência da estrutura de propriedade e aspectos da governança corporativa (compensação dos executivos) na eficiência das empresas, corrigindo uma falha muito comum praticada constantemente pelos estudiosos, que consideram somente os outputs como medidas de eficiência (Receita, Q de Tobin, ROA). Os resultados obtidos foram surpreendentes, mostrando que a estrutura de propriedade influencia negativamente a eficiência, contrariando grande parte dos estudos baseados no modelo americano e evidenciando que as peculiaridades dos países devem ser levadas em consideração, principalmente com relação à sua origem legal. Outra contribuição bastante pertinente do trabalho diz respeito ao cálculo da influência dos aspectos da governança corporativa (compensação dos executivos) na eficiência das empresas, cujos dados não estão disponíveis nas bases existentes e foram coletados manualmente dos relatórios 20-F da SEC (Security Exchange Commission). A análise mostrou que grande parte das variáveis referentes à governança apresenta resultados próximos aos encontrados por autores que pesquisaram este tema em outros países, mostrando que, nas empresas brasileiras analisadas, os padrões de incentivos e monitoramentos têm influências similares aos das empresas estrangeiras no que diz respeito à eficiência. / The issue of separation between ownership and control can affect the performance of the company. More concentrated structures are arguably more effective to solve these problems, but can also facilitate the expropriation of minority shareholders. On the other hand, there is little evidence that this separation has been diminishing over time (HOLDERNESS, KROSZNER AND SHEEHAN, 2000). Due to these factors, the thesis aims to analyze the influence of ownership structure and governance aspects (executive compensation) in the efficiency of publicly traded companies in Brazil, where is identified a higher concentration of stocks in the hands of a small group of people. The study combines static optimization techniques using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to identify the efficiency of publicly traded companies, with panel data to identify the influence of ownership structure and governance aspects (executive compensation) in the efficiency of the firms, correcting a flaw very common used constantly by scholars, who consider only the outputs to measure the efficiency (revenue, Tobin's Q, ROA). The results were surprising, showing that the ownership structure negatively influences the efficiency, contrary to most studies based on the American model and showing that the peculiarities of the countries should be taken into consideration, particularly with respect to their legal origin. Another very relevant contribution of the work concerns the calculation of the influence of the governance aspects (executive compensation) in the efficiency of the firm, whose data are not available in existing databases and were collected manually from the 20-F reports of SEC (Security Exchange Commission). The analysis showed that most variables related to governance aspects (executive compensation) have similar results to those found by authors who have researched this topic in other countries, showing that, in the Brazilian companies examined, the patterns of incentives and monitoring have similar influences to those of the companies in other countries in terms of efficiency.

A divulgação obrigatória de informações sobre a remuneração executiva, ao aumentar a capacidade de monitoramento pelos acionistas externos, torna mais difícil camuflar tanto o nível da remuneração dos executivos quanto sua fraca ou inexistente sensibilidade ao desempenho da empresa. Presume-se que essa maior capacidade de monitoramento poderia acarretar em melhoria da sensibilidade da remuneração executiva ao desempenho da empresa. Entretanto, presumir que tal melhoria seja uniforme entre as empresas significa ignorar o potencial conflito de interesses entre acionistas controladores e minoritários, que prevalece em muitas companhias abertas brasileiras. Por essa razão, no presente estudo investiga-se se a aprovação da Instrução Normativa 480/2009, vigente a partir de 2010, da Comissão de Valores Mobiliários, conduziu à adoção de estruturas mais eficientes de remuneração, com base no valor da remuneração média dos executivos das companhias abertas listadas na BM&FBovespa. Assim, buscou-se identificar o impacto da introdução da divulgação compulsória de informações relativas à remuneração executiva sobre a relação payperformance- sensitivity dessa remuneração, levando em conta os mecanismos internos de governança corporativa da empresa, a saber, sua estrutura de propriedade e independência do conselho de administração. Nesse sentido, formulou-se a hipótese de que o aumento da transparência conduziria a uma variação positiva na sensibilidade da remuneração executiva das empresas brasileiras em 2010 (H1) e que essa variação seria maior nas empresas sem acionista controlador definido (H1a); menor nas empresas familiares (H1b); e menor em empresas com conselhos de administração dependentes (H1c). Para tanto, foram utilizados dados em painel de 133 empresas brasileiras e 35 de outros países da América Latina, para o período de 2008 a 2010, com aplicação do método Differences-in-Differences-in-Differences (DDD). Os principais resultados obtidos sugerem que existe um efeito complementar entre a estrutura de propriedade e a regulamentação, fazendo com que a divulgação obrigatória de informações ocasione um impacto não uniforme sobre sensibilidade da remuneração ao desempenho das empresas. Mais especificamente, a sensibilidade da remuneração ao desempenho após a lei varia positivamente em empresas que não possuem acionista controlador definido e negativamente em empresas familiares. Há também evidências de que a dependência do conselho de administração com relação ao acionista controlador pode ser prejudicial à sensibilidade da remuneração executiva. O estudo salienta a importância de que medidas regulamentares relacionadas ao aumento da transparência no mercado brasileiro sejam avaliadas também em virtude de sua potencial interação com os mecanismos internos de governança, dado o ambiente institucional do Brasil. / Mandatory disclosure of executive compensation, to increase the capacity of monitoring by external shareholders, makes harder to hide both the level of executive compensation as their weakness or no sensibility to company performance. This increased monitoring capacity could result in improved sensitivity of executive compensation to company performance. However, to assume this improvement is uniform among companies is the same to ignore the potential conflict of interests between controlling and minority shareholders, which prevails in many Brazilian companies. Therefore, the present study investigates if the approval of Regulation 480/2009, effective from 2010, of Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil (CVM), led to the adoption of more efficient compensation structures, based on the average value of the executives’ compensation of companies listed in BM&FBovespa. Thus, we seek to identify the impact of mandatory disclosure about executive compensation in their payperformance- sensitivity, considering the firm-level corporate governance mechanisms, namely, its ownership structure and board independence. We formulated the hypothesis that increased transparency would lead to an increase in the sensitivity of executive compensation of Brazilian companies in 2010 (H1) and this variation would be greater in firms without defined controlling shareholder (H1a), lower in family businesses (H1b), and lower in firms with dependent boards of directors (H1c). Panel data of 133 brazilian companies and 35 of other Latin America countries during the period of 2008 to 2010 was used, applying the Differences-in-Differences-in-Differences (DDD) method. The main results suggest there is a complementary effect between the ownership structure and regulation, bringing on a nonuniform variation of pay-performance-sensitivity, with introduction of mandatory disclosure. More specifically, pay-performance sensitivity after law varies positively in companies that does not have controller shareholder, and negatively in family enterprises. There is also evidence that the dependence of the board with respect to the controlling shareholder can be detrimental to the sensitivity of pay to performance. This study emphasizes the importance that regulation actions related to increasing transparency in brazilian market are also evaluated due its interaction with firm-level corporate governance mechanisms, based on institutional environment of Brazil.

L'objectif de cette thèse consiste à étudier les liens entre les mécanismes internes de gouvernance des banques et le comportement de prise de risque. Nous montrons qu’Adam Smith avait déjà mis en évidence la défaillance des mécanismes de gouvernance dans la Banque « Ayr » comme principal facteur induisant la prise de risque excessive et, par conséquent, sa faillite. Nous développons un modèle qui illustre qu’une rémunération indexée sur les actifs risqués n’implique pas une prise de risque plus importante. Nous constatons, aussi, que pour inciter le dirigeant à réaliser la meilleure combinaison d’actifs, le conseil d’administration est tenu de lui payer la rémunération la plus élevée. La thèse porte également sur l’étude des attributs standards du CA et ceux liés à la gouvernance des risques dans les banques de l'UE durant la période 2005-2015. Les résultats de la régression panel à effet fixe indiquent que les caractéristiques du CA affectent le niveau des crédits non performants et l’insolvabilité des banques de l’UE. Les résultats de la régression quantile à effet fixe révèlent une hétérogénéité dans la relation entre le risque bancaire et les attributs étudiés. Plus précisément, nous constatons que l’effet positif de l’indépendance et la fréquence des réunions du CA sur la gestion des risques bancaires est plus important dans les banques les plus risquées. Nos résultats mettent en évidence, également, que la prévention des comportements de prise de risque excessive des banques de l’UE nécessite l’amélioration de l’efficacité des CA à travers l’établissement des comités de risque et d’audit. / The purpose of this thesis is to study the internal mechanisms of banks’ governance and their impact on the risk-taking behavior. We show that Adam Smith had already highlighted the inadequacy of the governance’ mechanisms in “Ayr” Bank as the primary factor leading to an excessive risk-taking and, consequently, to its bankruptcy. We develop a model that aims to evaluate the extent to which governance mechanisms play a moderating role on the compensation policy and the level of risk taken by the CEO. We illustrate that a remuneration indexed on risky assets does not imply a greater risk taking. We also conclude that in order to induce the CEO to achieve the best combination of assets, the board of directors (BD) is required to pay the highest compensation. The thesis also focuses on the study of standard BD attributes as well as those related to risk’ governance in EU banks from 2005 to 2015. The empirical investigation showed that certain BD features affect the level of non-performing loan and the insolvency of EU banks. The results of the fixed-effect quantile regression reveal that the effect of the standard BD and risk’ governance attributes on risk-taking is heterogeneous. More specifically, we can note that the positive effect of the independence and frequency of board meetings on bank’ risk management is more significant in the riskier banks. In addition to this, our empirical results suggests that the prevention of excessive risk taking by EU banks requires the improvement of the effectiveness of BD through the establishment of risk an audit committees.

Abstract A major proposition of the agency theory is that the conflict of interests between an agent and a principal is reduced when the agent’s wealth and compensation are tied to the performance of the firm. Apart from the direct predicted relation to corporate performance, compensating managers with equity instruments has implications for corporate risk-taking and payout policy choices. Additionally, equity-based compensation practices are to a large extent shaped by institutional factors, such as accounting regulations. This dissertation seeks to enhance our understanding of the determinants and implications of equity-based compensation and equity-based ownership of public companies’ executives through four interrelated essays. First, the dissertation re-examines the performance and risk-taking consequences of executive equity-based compensation and equity ownership using novel approaches. Second, the dissertation studies the side effects of equity-based compensation and the ways in which companies respond to the accounting regulations in the area of equity-based compensation. The empirical results of the first essay show that CEO’s equity incentives are economically more significant when measured relative to her outside non-firm wealth rather than relative to the total market value of the firm. These results also suggest that there is a positive relation between CEO’s equity incentives measured relative to her outside wealth and future accounting performance. The second essay reports that executive risk-taking incentives resulting from stock options holdings are significantly positively related to the degree of risk a firm takes when offering its customers trade credit. The third essay provides empirical evidence that companies engage in timing equity grant dates before the release of favorable earnings news in order to minimize the subsequent compensation expense. The fourth essay documents an inverse relation between the executive cash dividend receipts resulting from the holdings of equity and the level of current cash compensation of CEOs, and suggests that equity ownership is indirectly interrelated with the structure of cash compensation via dividends. Collectively, the results of the dissertation are of interest to shareholders of public companies, executive compensation consultants and boards of directors. / Tiivistelmä Agenttiteorian mukaan agentin ja päämiehen intressien ristiriita pienenee, kun agentin varallisuus ja palkkaus on sidottu yrityksen suorituskykyyn. Tämän suoran vaikutuksen lisäksi ylimmän johdon osakesidonnainen palkitseminen vaikuttaa sekä yrityksen riskinottoon että voitonjaon muotoon. Institutionaaliset tekijät, kuten tilinpäätöstä koskevat säännökset, vaikuttavat myös yritysten osakepohjaisten palkitsemiskäytäntöjen muotoutumiseen. Tämän väitöskirjan tarkoituksena on lisätä ymmärrystämme pörssiyritysten ylimmän johdon osakepohjaisista palkitsemisjärjestelmistä ja osakeomistuksiin johtaneita syitä ja niiden seurauksia neljän osatutkimuksen avulla. Väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan ensinnäkin osakepohjaisten palkitsemisjärjestelmien ja osakeomistusten vaikutuksia yritysten suorituskykyyn ja riskinottoon lähestymällä kysymystä uudella tavalla. Toiseksi väitöskirja tarkastelee osakepohjaisten palkitsemisjärjestelmien sivuvaikutuksia ja yritysten reagointia palkitsemisjärjestelmiä koskeviin säännöksiin. Ensimmäisen osatutkimuksen empiiristen tulosten mukaan toimitusjohtajan osakekannustimet ovat taloudellisesti merkittävämpiä silloin, kun ne on mitattu suhteessa toimitusjohtajan varallisuuteen sen sijaan, että ne olisi mitattu suhteessa yrityksen markkina-arvoon. Tulosten mukaan toimitusjohtajan osakekannustimien ja yrityksen tulevan kannattavuuden välillä on positiivinen suhde. Toisen osatutkimuksen tulosten mukaan ylimmän johdon osakeoptioiden riskinottokannustimet lisäävät yrityksen riskinottoa asiakasluotoissaan. Kolmas osatutkimus antaa empiiristä näyttöä siitä, että yritykset ajoittavat osakeluovutuspäivät minimoidakseen palkitsemiskustannuksia tilinpäätöksissään. Neljännessä osatutkimuksessa havaitaan käänteinen suhde toimitusjohtajan käteisosinkojen ja -palkan välillä, mikä viittaa siihen, että osakeomistus ja käteispalkan rakenne ovat epäsuoranaisesti yhteydessä toisiinsa osinkojen kautta. Kokonaisuudessaan väitöskirjan tulokset ovat mielenkiintoisia pörssiyritysten osakeomistajille, yritysjohtajien palkitsemisneuvonantajille sekä yritysten hallituksien jäsenille.

While most studies take a dyadic view when examining the environmental difference between the home country of a multinational enterprise (MNE) and a particular foreign country, they ignore that an MNE is managing a network of subsidiaries embedded in diverse environments. Additionally, neither the impacts of global environments on top executives nor the effects of top executives’ capabilities to handle institutional complexity are fully explored. Thus, using a three-essay format, this dissertation tried to fill these gaps by addressing the effects of institutional complexity and top management characteristics on top executive compensation and firm performance. Essay 1 investigated the impact of an MNE’s institutional complexity, or the diversity of national institutions facing an MNE’s network of subsidiaries, on the top management team (TMT) compensation. This essay proposed that greater political and cultural complexity leads to not only greater TMT total compensation but also to a greater portion of TMT compensation linked with long-term performance. The arguments are supported in this essay by using an unbalanced panel dataset including 296 U.S. firms with 1,340 observations. Essay 2 explored TMT social capital and its moderating role on value creation and appropriation by the chief executive officer (CEO). Using a sample with 548 U.S. firms and 2,010 observations, it found that greater TMT social capital does facilitate the effects of CEO intellectual capital and social capital on firm growth. Finally, essay 3 examined the performance implications for the fit between managerial information-processing capabilities and institutional complexity. It proposed that institutional complexity is associated with the needs of information-processing. On the other hand, smaller TMT turnover and larger TMT size reflect larger managerial information-processing capabilities. Consequently, superior performance is achieved by the match among institutional complexity, TMT turnover, and TMT size. All hypotheses in essay 3 are supported in a sample of 301 U.S. firms and 1,404 observations. To conclude, this dissertation advances and extends our knowledge on the roles of institutional environments and top executives on firm performance and top executive compensation.

This thesis addresses the mechanics of executive remuneration from an unorthodox perspective; the view presented through the lens of imperfect market pricing. Whilst many of the criticisms of existing compensation arrangements are merited, they ignore the integrity of a crucial aspect of the way remuneration awards are calculated; the market pricing mechanism. The original contribution of knowledge of this thesis is to explain how imperfect market pricing undermines the utility of stock-based compensation awards, especially in light of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-11 (‘GFC’).The existing position with regard to Anglo-American corporate governance emphasises the role of the market in determining optimal governance solutions. However, the market cannot regulate all conflicts. For example, the separation of ownership and control in modern corporations creates an agency problem whereby managerial and shareholder interests may diverge. Public companies therefore use performance-related pay to align the interests of management with those of firm owners. This performance-related pay often includes an element with a specific link to the price of company stock. A by-product of these arrangements is that incentives are created for executives to inflate the value of their companies in order to benefit from short-run price appreciation. This reduces the utility of stock-based pay and encourages market short-termism. There is however, a further fundamental flaw in the use of stock-based pay; it places complete faith in modern finance theory; a theory which asserts that market pricing is flawless (the so-called Efficient Capital Markets Hypothesis). However, financial and asset markets are susceptible to forces which drive prices away from intrinsic value for protracted periods and contribute to serious price distortion. Behavioural finance explains how these distortions occur and provides a more appropriate paradigm for securities market operation. The Financial Instability Hypothesis (‘FIH’) also explains how endogenous instability, emanating from the banking sector, arises as an inevitable consequence of the functioning of the capitalist economy. It further demonstrates how markets may be driven away from fundamental value, how asset bubbles occur, and how the market pricing mechanism is seriously distorted. The most serious recent crisis, the GFC, exhibited the FIH taxonomy. It exposed serious flaws in modern finance theory and revealed the dangers of flawed incentive systems in generating asset bubbles. Executives at financial institutions stand accused of short-termism, over-leveraging and poor risk management. Monitoring of management was impossible to perform effectively due to various behavioural and structural obstacles arising from the size and complexity of the institutions concerned. Moreover, a system of perverse incentives led to the failure of effective regulation of executive compensation.Reform is therefore required. The thesis will conclude with a critical analysis of recent amendments to the regulation of compensation systems at financial institutions. Based on this examination, the thesis will make some proposals for future remuneration packages in the wider economy. These proposals are designed to reduce the potential for financial instability through removing incentives for firm executives to concentrate on short-term results, and emphasize the role of qualitative indices of performance.

No description available.

The size of the remuneration paid to CEOs is a continuously debated area in society. In times of inflation, where the real wages are decreasing at the same time as the remuneration to CEOs are increasing, the phenomenon becomes more relevant. Is the remuneration paid to CEOs at a reasonable level? Are they getting paid in accordance with the performance of the company they manage? The purpose of this study is to see if there is a pay-performance relation in the most traded companies in Scandinavia. To fulfill the purpose, analyses were performed to test the relationship between CEOs remuneration and the financial performance of the firm they manage for the years 2018 to 2021. The sample consists of 71 companies that are listed on one of the indexes OMXS30, OMXC25 and OBX in Scandinavia. 28 out of the companies are Swedish, 23 Danish and 20 are Norwegian. Both the total and variable CEO remuneration in the companies were manually gathered from remuneration and annual reports and then tested against the financial performance measures Return on Assets and Total Investment Return. As the CEO is in an agency position where the shareholders work as the principals, an agency problem is present. To reduce the agency problem, incentives for the CEO to work in the shareholders’ best interest are important. One way of doing that is to design the CEOs remuneration package so it has a relation to the performance of the company. Originating from the Agency Theory, the Managerial Power and the Optimal Contracting theories try to explain the way these packages are designed. The Optimal Contracting theory explain that the design is to align the participants interest in order to maximize both parties’ outcomes, while the Managerial Power theory is explained as top executives possesses substantial power in the company, it enables them to extract higher remuneration than what is optimal for the shareholders. The empirical result showed a significant positive relationship between variable remuneration and both performance measures along with total remuneration and Total Invest Return. A positive relationship was found between total remuneration and Return on Assets, but not statistically significant. Based on the results a conclusion can be drawn that there is a pay-performance relation in companies listed on the main indexes in Scandinavia, and that the Optimal Contracting theory better explain the way remuneration packages are designed.

This dissertation is composed by two essays that explore corporate governance issues in S&P firms. The first essay examines changes in corporate governance after a firm gets added to the S&P 500 index? Using firms added from 1994 to 2007, this paper examines how governance mechanisms change for these firms. Specifically, I look at both the overall governance and details on how each mechanism changes. I find that governance improves after being added to the index. Controlling for firm size, leverage, prior firm performance, and growth opportunities, the market reacts positively to governance improvements as a whole. In addition, changes in governance are positively associated with changes in operating performance. In the second essay, the departure of a CEO often raises questions about who will replace him/her. This study examines the homogeneity/heterogeneity nature of the internal labor market using a novel measure, a heterogeneity index, which captures the concentration of executive compensation levels. I find that a more homogeneous internal labor market is associated with (1) a greater likelihood of an internal replacement, (2) a higher probability of a CEO turnover, and (3) a bigger tournament prize. In addition, the negative performance-turnover relationship is strengthened by a more homogeneous internal labor market. The heterogeneity index seems to proxy for internal labor market competition.

No description available.