Multinational banks (MNBs) play a critical role in promoting international business and maintaining the stability of the global financial system. Offering policy implications for regulators worldwide, Tai-Yuan Chen and Mingyi Hung of HKUST, working with a colleague, show how the reporting transparency of MNBs (which operate extensively across borders) is ... 阅读更多

Corporate stakeholders have long assessed companies based on indicators of financial performance. Recently, however, “softer” indicators have been added to these assessments, under the rubric of corporate social responsibility (CSR) . Today, CSR significantly influences depositors’ assessments of banks’ trustworthiness, according to HKUST’s Mingyi Hung and ... 阅读更多

In the last decade, reforms have been implemented worldwide to improve gender diversity in corporate boardrooms. “Boardroom diversity is a key social performance issue, and boardroom reforms represent major social and governance policy initiatives,” say HKUST’s Mingyi Hung and Emily Jing Wang, working with colleagues. Their forward-thinking study sheds light ... 阅读更多

Recent decades have seen extraordinary growth in cross-border debt financing as financial systems become more globally integrated and companies take advantage of foreign markets to share risk, increase liquidity, and obtain cheaper capital. In the first study to comprehensively identify corporate rating patterns for a broad set of international firms, HKUST ... 阅读更多

“Fair value” is a gold standard in valuation, but there is no consensus on its usefulness in other areas, such as evaluating management performance. HKUST’s Mingyi Hung and her colleagues settle this dispute in important new work, contending that fair value accounting may actually be unhelpful when it comes to contracting. This finding is particularly ... 阅读更多

Debt covenants are an important monitoring mechanism that govern cash-flow rights and control rights between borrowers and lenders. Although it is believed that enforcement and property rights are primary determinants of a firm’s ability to write comprehensive contracts, there is currently little evidence supporting if or how these legal institutions affect ... 阅读更多

We examine the impact of corporate board reforms on firm value in 41 countries. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that board reforms increase firm value. Reforms involving board and audit committee independence, but not reforms involving separation of chairman and CEO positions, drive the valuation increases. In addition, while comply-or ... 阅读更多

政治关系与世界各地的公司和股东的各种利益息息相关，例如更好地获得银行资助，更低的税收壁垒，宽松的监管执法，获得政府合同与支持。但这些联系是如何影响一家公司自愿披露信息的意愿呢？ 这个问题很有意思，因为越来越多的研究表明，企业透明度在企业效率和增长中发挥着重要作用。当资本市场激励因素较多且诉讼风险较高时，企业通常更愿意披露信息。但洪明儀，Yongtae Kim和黎思琦认为，当一家公司与政府有联系时，这些激励因素就会减少。 他们说，“与非关联公司相比，关联公司更容易获得信贷，并从受政治家影响的银行中获得特许贷款。因此，他们不太需要从公众那里筹集资金，更不愿披露信息，以降低资本成本。此外，关联公司在政治上享有保护，诉讼风险更低，所以披露信息的激励因素就会减少，以避免诉讼。 ... 阅读更多

一项关于在华企业社会责任活动强制报告制度的研究发现，在该制度正式实行后，企业的盈利能力下降，但环境污染程度同时降低，这对整个社会大有裨益。 陈怡君，洪明仪和汪勇祥的研究重点关注了2008年公布的上海证券交易所公司治理指数和深圳证券交易所100指数中的一项要求。相关企业必须提交企业社会责任报告，这样公司的业绩就能更清楚地展现在政府监管机构、非政府组织和其他利益相关方的眼前，让他们现在有一种手段可以向企业施压，要求企业增加社会责任的相关活动。 这三位作者研究了披露规则生效前后（2006年至2011年）这些企业的业绩，并将其与不需要提交企业社会责任报告的公司进行比较。他们发现，披露规则生效后，需要提交企业社会责任报告的公司的资产收益率和股东权益回报率均出现下滑。 他们说： ... 阅读更多

在过去20年，显然全球越来越多公司为了增加公司价值而改革董事会。人们相信，如果董事会有更多的外部代表，内部人员（如高级管理人员和股东）就不敢中饱私囊，并且反会鼓励他们投资于使大家都受益的项目。此外，改革还有望提高财务报告的透明度，借此应能增加外部融资，降低资本成本，从而提高公司价值。 如果公司内部人员妨碍公司投资于良好实务，则改革可能是必要的。的而且确，政府颁布的改革可以起到巨大的作用，因为政府颁布的改革要求公司改进董事会的工作方法，无需理会控股股东的意见如何，亦鼓励采纳本来不会采纳的做法。但另一方面，董事会改革的批评者指出，一旦将所有因素都纳入考虑，现有的做法反映的就是最佳路线；因此，改变这种平衡不但不必要并且可能是有害的。就是这样，董事会改革一直是许多研究的主题。然而，到目前为止 ... 阅读更多