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 ... 閱讀更多

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 ... 閱讀更多

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 ... 閱讀更多

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 ... 閱讀更多

“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 ... 閱讀更多

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 ... 閱讀更多

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 ... 閱讀更多

政治關係與世界各地的公司和股東的各種利益息息相關，例如更好地獲得銀行資助，更低的稅收壁壘，寬鬆的監管執法，獲得政府合同與支持。但這些聯繫是如何影響一家公司自願披露資訊的意願呢？ 這個問題很有意思，因為越來越多的研究表明，企業透明度在企業效率和增長中發揮著重要作用。當資本市場激勵因素較多且訴訟風險較高時，企業通常更願意披露資訊。但洪明儀，Yongtae Kim和黎思琦認為，當一家公司與政府有聯繫時，這些激勵因素就會減少。 他們說，“與非關聯公司相比，關聯公司更容易獲得信貸，並從受政治家影響的銀行中獲得特許貸款。因此，他們不太需要從公眾那裡籌集資金，更不願披露資訊，以降低資本成本。此外，關聯公司在政治上享有保護，訴訟風險更低，所以披露資訊的激勵因素就會減少，以避免訴訟。 ... 閱讀更多

一項關於在華企業社會責任活動強制報告制度的研究發現，在該制度正式實行後，企業的盈利能力下降，但環境污染程度同時降低，這對整個社會大有裨益。 陳怡君，洪明儀和汪勇祥的研究重點關注了2008年公佈的上海證券交易所公司治理指數和深圳證券交易所100指數中的一項要求。相關企業必須提交企業社會責任報告，這樣公司的業績就能更清楚地展現在政府監管機構、非政府組織和其他利益相關方的眼前，讓他們現在有一種手段可以向企業施壓，要求企業增加社會責任的相關活動。 這三位元作者研究了披露規則生效前後（2006年至2011年）這些企業的業績，並將其與不需要提交企業社會責任報告的公司進行比較。他們發現，披露規則生效後，需要提交企業社會責任報告的公司的資產收益率和股東權益回報率均出現下滑。 他們說： ... 閱讀更多

在過去20年，顯然全球越來越多公司為了增加公司價值而改革董事會。人們相信，如果董事會有更多的外部代表，內部人員（如高級管理人員和股東）就不敢中飽私囊，並且反會鼓勵他們投資於使大家都受益的項目。此外，改革還有望提高財務報告的透明度，借此應能增加外部融資，降低資本成本，從而提高公司價值。 如果公司內部人員妨礙公司投資於良好實務，則改革可能是必要的。的而且確，政府頒佈的改革可以起到巨大的作用，因為政府頒佈的改革要求公司改進董事會的工作方法，無需理會控股股東的意見如何，亦鼓勵採納本來不會採納的做法。但另一方面，董事會改革的批評者指出，一旦將所有因素都納入考慮，現有的做法反映的就是最佳路線；因此，改變這種平衡不但不必要並且可能是有害的。就是這樣，董事會改革一直是許多研究的主題。然而，到目前為止 ... 閱讀更多