Business Commons^™

Institutional Investors, Controlling Shareholders And Ceo Pay‐Performance Relationship: Evidence From China, Dan Zhang, Shiguang Ma, Xiaofei Pan

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Using a large sample of China's listed firms between 2005 and 2015, we find that domestic mutual funds have a positive effect on the CEO pay‐performance relationship, and this effect becomes stronger when their ownership is higher and closer to the controlling shareholder's ownership. This effect is stronger in non‐state‐owned enterprises (non‐SOEs), firms facing weaker industry competition incentives, and firms located in more developed regions. However, Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFIIs) do not have such an influence. Overall, our study contends that the effectiveness of institutional investors' monitoring role is subject to their identity, controlling shareholders and institutional environments.

State Ownership And Earnings Management In Highly-Valued Firms: Evidence From China, Leye Li, Gary S. Monroe, Jing Wang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We examine how state ownership affects Chinese firms’ earning management during a period of high valuation. Based on a sample of 19,107 firm-year observations with sufficient data on the China Securities Markets and Accounting Research (CSMAR) database over the period from 2003 to 2017, we find the magnitude of accruals management first increases for up to three years of high valuation, and then reduces after the fourth year. This finding is consistent with the view that the difficulty of consistently using accruals to manage earnings upwards increases over time because of the reversing nature of accruals. We find that managers …

Decentralization And Firm Investment: Evidence From China, Xiaofei Pan, Yiping Wu, Huihang Wu

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Taking advantage of decentralization reform that enlarges the authority of county government in China, we construct a quasi-experiment. Using a large sample of Chinese firms, we show that after the implementation of decentralization reform, firms located in decentralized counties experienced a significant increase in investment expenditure compared with other firms. We also find that after the decentralization reform, state owned enterprises (SOEs) experienced greater increase in investment expenditure on average compared with non-SOEs, and that, within non-SOEs, collective firms have an even larger increase in investments, followed by foreign firms and private firms. Further analysis shows that the influence of …

Stock Liquidity, Corporate Governance And Leverage: New Panel Evidence, Sivathaasan Nadarajah, Searat Ali, Benjamin Liu, Allen Huang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We examine the effect of stock liquidity and corporate governance on the firm's leverage decision in the order-driven stock trading system and less stringent governance environment of Australia. Using a sample of 1207 non-financial firms from 2001 to 2013, resulting in 9855 firm-year observations, we find the posited negative stock liquidity-leverage relation, confirming prior research observations that firms with more liquid stocks are significantly less leveraged. We also find a significant and negative relation between corporate governance quality (CGQ) and leverage, indicating that firms with high CGQ significantly reduce leverage. In a closer analysis, we find that the significantly negative …

Small And Medium Enterprise Productivity And Its Determinants: Evidence From Vietnamese Manufacturing Smes, Cong Nguyen, Charles Harvie, Amir Arjomandi

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Exogenous Oil Shocks And The Fiscal Policy Response In Oil-Exporting Countries: Evidence From Libya, Issa Saleh Ali, Charles Harvie

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The downtrend in oil prices beginning in 2014 represents a challenge for small­open developing and exporting economies like Libya. This stems from the importance of government revenue generated from the natural resource sector in financing government consumption and investment expenditures as well as capital imports. The dependency on the natural resource sector and a relatively weak non-natural-resource tax base renders fiscal positions highly challenging in oil­ exporting countries. As more than 90 percent of Libya's government revenue is generated from the oil sector, the budget components are the most influenced by oil-related shocks. Transitory oil price increases, especially after 2000, …

Corporate Governance And Stock Liquidity Dimensions: Panel Evidence From Pure Order-Driven Australian Market, Searat Ali, Benjamin Liu, Jen Je Su

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Our newly constructed index of corporate governance quality (CGQ) provides comprehensive and robust evidence for the association between CGQ and stock liquidity in the pure order-driven Australia market. By using a large sample of 1207 firms from 2001 to 2013, we find a significant positive relationship between CGQ and stock liquidity, suggesting that better governed firms have greatly improved stock liquidity. Specifically, we find that better governed firms have a lower trading cost, smaller price impacts of trade, and higher trading speed. Moreover, the empirical results reveal that CGQ improves stock liquidity because it is associated with higher information disclosure.

Does The Military Turn Men Into Criminals? New Evidence From Australia's Conscription Lotteries, Peter Siminski, Simon Ville, Alexander Paull

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In this paper, we estimate the effect of military service on the perpetration of crime. Several hypothesized links exist between service and crime, but recent quasi-experimental studies on this subject have produced mixed results. Our contribution to this literature uses Australia's Vietnam era conscription lotteries for identification along with criminal court data from Australia's three largest states. We find no evidence that military service increases or decreases crime in any category. In our preferred specification, the 95 % confidence interval rules out positive (negative) effects larger than 11 % (10 %) relative to the mean crime rate.

(Dis)Engaging With Sustainability: Evidence From An Australian Business Faculty, Maria Cadiz Dyball, Andy Wang, Sue Wright

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore how the lack of staff engagement with a university's strategy on sustainability could be an enabling lever for organisational change. It examines the attitudes and views of employees of a business faculty at an Australian metropolitan university as it attempts to adopt a holistic approach to sustainability. Design/methodology/approach - The paper opted for a case study using data from an on-line survey, semi-directed interviews with key management personnel and archival material. Responses were analysed using Piderit's (2000) notion of ambivalence. Findings - The paper provides empirical insights into why staff …

Fleeting Orders And Dynamic Trading Strategies: Evidence From The Australian Security Stock Exchange (Asx), Tina Prodromou, Joakim Westerholm, Hui Zheng, Dionigi Gerace

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This study examines the behaviour of fleeting orders before and after two structural changes at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX); the removal of broker IDs from the public limit order book and a change in the price structure of exchange fees. Following Hasbrouck and Saar (2009), fleeting orders are defined as orders that are revised or cancelled within two seconds. Firstly, this study confirms that fleeting limit order revisions exhibit similar properties to liquidity-demanding orders. Secondly, after the removal of broker IDs on the market, traders start to aggressively chase the market price. Thirdly, after the price structure changes, traders …

Corporate Governance And Stock Liquidity: Panel Evidence From 2001 To 2013, Searat Ali, Benjamin Liu, Jen Je Su

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Constructing a new index of corporate governance quality (CGQ), we provide comprehensive and robust evidence for the association between governance quality and stock liquidity in the pure order-driven stock market of Australia. We hypothesize that governance quality affects stock liquidity because effective governance alleviates information asymmetries between insiders (e.g., managers) and outsiders (e.g., investors), as well as among outsiders by improving the financial transparency of a firm. Consistent with this theoretical argument, by using a large sample of 1,207 firms (10,179 firm-year observations) over the long period from 2001 to 2013, we find a significant positive relationship between governance quality …

Does Control-Ownership Divergence Impair Market Liquidity In An Emerging Market? Evidence From China, Xiaojun Chu, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines how institutional characteristics of emerging economies influence the effect of control-ownership divergence on market liquidity. We find that the divergence is negatively associated with liquidity and that this negative relationship is more pronounced in firms with more severe agency problems and information asymmetry. We argue that in an emerging market, the negative effect of the divergence on liquidity is worsened by state ownership and poorer shareholder protection, both of which result in more severe agency conflicts; we also find, however, that this effect is alleviated by the NTS reform, which aligns the interest of different shareholders.

Bank Ownership And Efficiency In Post-Conflict Era Of Sri Lanka: Evidence From Aggregate Efficiency Technique, Bolanda Hewa Thilakaweera, Charles Harvie, Amir Arjomandi

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Deviating from conventional methods in comparing the group performance of banks this study extends the established literature to compare efficiency between foreign and domestic banks, by employing comprehensive weighted aggregate efficiency measures derived through bootstrap simulations for the banking sector for the post - confli ct era of Sri Lanka. The study also compares the banking sector performance between initial and later parts of the post - conflict period, using weighted aggregate efficiency measures. At the end of the armed conflict between LTTE 1 and Sri Lankan government forces the banking sector experienced considerable expansion in terms of banking density …

Breaking The Link Between Legal Access To Alcohol And Motor Vehicle Accidents: Evidence From New South Wales, Jason M. Lindo, Peter M. Siminski, Oleg Yerokhin

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

A large literature has documented significant public health benefits associated with the minimum legal drinking age in the USA, particularly because of the resulting effects on motor vehicle accidents. These benefits form the primary basis for continued efforts to restrict youth access to alcohol. It is important to keep in mind that policymakers have a wide variety of alcohol-control options available to them, and understanding how these policies may complement or substitute for one another can improve policy making moving forward. Towards this end, we propose that investigating the causal effects of the minimum legal drinking age in New South …

The Use Of Accountability Reports And The Accountability Forum: Evidence From An Indonesian Local Government, Muhammad Hudaya, Ted Watts, Parulian Silaen, Ciorstan Smark

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This article explores the changing accountability role that Indonesian local government reporting has played by exploring a Local Government Under Study's (LGUS) accountability report process. The study uses an interpretive (social constructionist) methodology. A case study method (including historical records and interviews, as well as direct observations) is used through an institutional theory lens to interpret local reporting behaviour. Local government currently submits accountability reports to three parties: the central government, the local parliament and the public. However, while the public now receives a report, it contains only a summary of the report submitted to the central government and is …

The Influence Of Presenteeism On Job Satisfaction And Employee Turnover Intentions: Evidence From Bangladeshi Employees, Amlan Haque

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This study investigates the association of presenteeism with job satisfaction and employee turnover intentions. Presenteeism refers to attending work while ill and not being able to work up to full capacity. Hypotheses are tested using data from 200 full-time Bangladeshi employees with a web-based online survey. As predicted, significant negative associations were identified between presenteeism and job satisfaction as well as among job satisfaction and employee turnover intentions. A further analysis also revealed a significant positive relationship between presenteeism and employee turnover intentions. This study suggests that presenteeism is associated with job satisfaction and employee turnover intentions and should be …

Who Responds To Financial Incentives For Weight Loss? Evidence From A Randomized Controlled Trial, Alfredo R. Paloyo, Arndt R. Reichert, Monika Reuss-Borst, Harald Tauchmann

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

There is a paucity of evidence on the heterogeneous impacts of financial incentives on weight loss. Between March 2010 and January 2012, in a randomized controlled trial, we assigned 700 obese persons to three experimental arms. We test whether particular subgroups react differently to financial incentives for weight loss. Two treatment groups obtained a cash reward (€150 and €300 with 237 and 229 participants, respectively) for achieving an individually-assigned target weight within four months; the control group (234 participants) was not incentivized. Participants and administrators were not blinded to the intervention. We find that monetary rewards effectively induced obese individuals …

Stakeholders' Power, Corporate Characteristics, And Social And Environmental Disclosure: Evidence From China, Yingjun Lu, Indra Abeysekera

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the influences of stakeholders' power and corporate characteristics on social and environmental disclosure practices of socially responsible Chinese listed firms identified by a social responsibility ranking list. A stakeholder-driven, three-dimensional social and environmental disclosure index including disclosure quantity, disclosure type quality and disclosure item quality, is constructed to assess sample firms' social and environmental disclosures in their two public reports: annual reports and corporate social responsibility reports. Findings indicate that corporate social and environmental disclosures have significant and positive associations with firm size, profitability, and industry classification. The roles of various powerful stakeholders in influencing corporate social …

Do Venture Capitalists Play A Monitoring Role In An Emerging Market? Evidence From The Pay-Performance Relationship Of Chinese Entrepreneurial Firms, Jerry Cao, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates venture capitalists' monitoring of managerial behaviour by examining their impact on CEO pay-performance sensitivity across various controlling structures in Chinese firms. We find that the effectiveness of venture capitalists' monitoring depends on different types of agency conflict. In particular, we find that venture capital (VC) monitoring is hampered in firms that experience severe controlling-minority agency problems caused by disproportionate ownership structures. We provide further evidence that VC is more likely to exert close monitoring in firms that have greater managerial agency conflict, and thus require more direct monitoring. However, controlling-minority agency problems have a greater impact on …

Convergence In Sovereign Debt Ratios Across Heavily Indebted Eu Countries: Evidence From Club Convergence, N Apergis, Arusha Cooray

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We study the convergence of sovereign debt accumulation in five European Monetary Union (EMU) countries using quarterly data from June 2009 to June 2013, with a focus on debt ratio convergence following the 2009 sovereign debt crisis and the adoption of fiscal consolidation programmes. We test the Phillips and Sul (2007) club convergence hypothesis. We find the evidence of a lack of debt convergence for Greece and Portugal. Our results support the view that there is not a uniform austerity prescription for all, especially, without emphasizing friendly growth policies, which makes these countries more prone to investors' sentiments.

Does A Gender Disparity Exist In Academic Rank? Evidence From An Australian University, Arusha Cooray, Reetu Verma, Lynne Wright

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Employing a unique administrative data set on academics from the University of Wollongong (UOW), we investigate if women are under-represented in academic rank, taking into account information on personal characteristics, job characteristics, education and productivity. The results suggest that males have a significant advantage in rank attainment. The possession of a PhD, the number of years of experience and the number of journal articles, books, book chapters, competitive grants and ERA A* ranked articles appear to be important for academic rank attainment. A Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition test indicates that both supply side and demand side factors play a role; however, there …

Ownership Control And Debt Maturity Structure: Evidence From China, Wenjuan Ruan, Grant Cullen, Shiguang Ma, Erwei Xiang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - The authors examine the debt maturity structure of Chinese listed companies during the period when bond market was under-developed and the majority of commercial banks were owned by the state. The purpose of this paper is to answer why and how the different ownership control types impact the firms' preference and accessibility to either long- or short-term debts.

Design/methodology/approach - The univariate analysis was used to test the differences of debt maturity choices for firms grouped by ownership control types, profitability and institutional development. Then, logit regression and ordinary least squares regression were applied to examine the determinants …

Does Banks' Dual Holding Affect Bank Lending And Firms' Investment Decisions? Evidence From China, Xiaofei Pan, Gary Tian

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This study investigates the effect of banks' dual holding on bank lending and firms' investment decisions using a sample of listed firms in China. We find that dual holding leads to easier access to bank loans, a result that is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) than SOEs. We also find that dual holding distorts banks' lending decisions and harms the investment efficiency for SOEs, while resulting in optimal lending decisions and enhanced investment efficiency for non-SOEs. For non-SOEs, further analysis suggests that optimal lending decisions and efficient investment can be achieved for firms with higher ownership concentration, and firms …

The Effect Of Personality Traits On Subject Choice And Performance In High School: Evidence From An English Cohort, Silvia Mendolia, Ian Walker

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the relationship between personality traits in adolescence and performance in high school using a large and recent cohort study. In particular, we investigate the impact of locus of control, self-esteem, and work ethics at age 15, on test scores at age 16, and on subject choices and subsequent performance at age 17-18. In particular, individuals with external locus of control or with low levels of self-esteem seem less likely to have good performance in test scores at age 16 and to pursue further studies at 17-18, especially in mathematics or science. We use matching methods to control …

The Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure And Financial Performance: Evidence From Thailand, Wisuttorn Jitaree, Sudhir C. Lodh, Shyam S. Bhati

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This study examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and financial performance in Thailand during the period 2009-2011. Four measures of financial performance were used based on data extracted from the annual reports of 232 firms listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. A CSR disclosure index was constructed to measure the extent and dimensions of CSR disclosure. Overall, the results from the empirical analysis provide some evidence of positive relationship between financial performance and CSR disclosure. This study adds further evidence to the literature on the relationship between the CSR and financial performance in an emerging country. …

Do Low-Skilled Migrants Contribute More To Home Country Income? Evidence From South Asia, Arusha V. Cooray

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

A recursive system is employed to investigate the indirect effect of out-migration on gross domestic product (GDP) through remittances in South Asia, namely Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Out-migration is further disaggregated by skill level and country of destination (Middle East and other), and their effects on GDP through remittances are examined. The results suggest that migration and remittances have an important significant effect on the GDP of the countries under study. Of the skill categories, the unskilled category has the largest robust indirect effect on GDP. The effects of migration on GDP by country of destination suggest …

The Effect Of Chronic Pain On Life Satisfaction: Evidence From Australian Data, Paul Mcnamee, Silvia Mendolia

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Chronic pain is associated with significant costs to individuals directly affected by this condition, their families, the healthcare system, and the society as a whole. This paper investigates the relationship between chronic pain and life satisfaction using a sample of around 90,000 observations from the first ten waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia Survey (HILDA), which is a representative survey of the Australian population that started in 2000. We estimate the negative impact on life satisfaction and examine the persistence of the effect over multiple years. Chronic pain is associated with poor health conditions, disability, decreased …

Politicisation Of The International Accounting Standard Setting Process: Evidence From The Extractive Industries, Corinne L. Cortese

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed example of the way in which extractive industries constituents participated in the setting of the international accounting standard for the extractive industries, IFRS 6 - Exploration for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources. Design/methodology/approach - A cross-section of extractive industries constituents is selected and their participation in the accounting standard setting process is examined via analysis of their comment letters and other interactions with the process. Findings - The paper contributes to our understanding of the politicised nature of accounting standard setting for the extractive industries. In doing so, …

Does Bank Ownership Imply Efficient Monitoring? Evidence From Bank Lending And Firm Investment Efficiencies In China, Gary G. Tian, Xiaofei Pan

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This study investigates the effect of bank ownership on lending and firm investment efficiencies to give reasons for the mixed evidence that exists on the impact of bank ownership on firm performance. Using China's listed firms as an example, we find that bank ownership reduces the efficiency of bank lending and harms investment efficiency for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), while simultaneously relating to optimal lending decisions and enhanced investment efficiency for non-SOEs. Our findings suggest that banks monitor non-SOEs effectively, but are less effective at monitoring SOEs. We document that banks' ex post monitoring on non-SOEs' investment policy results from their …

Mutual Fund Ownership, Firm Specific Information, And Firm Performance: Evidence From China, Wenhua Sharpe, Gary Tian, Hong Feng Zhang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper shows empirically that the positive association between mutual fund ownership and firm value in China is mainly driven by the informed trading of mutual funds. Utilizing the unique short term feature of mutual fund holdings for the period from 2001 to 2010, we provide an informational link between a decomposed component of market-to-book ratio (firm specific valuation component) and mutual fund holdings. Specifically, we find that firms with a higher level of mutual fund ownership are associated with a higher specific value. Moreover, the positive association between the specific value of a firm and mutual fund ownership is …