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Determinants of board members' financial expertise -- Empirical evidence from France

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  • Jeanjean, Thomas
  • Stolowy, Hervé

Abstract

Very few countries require directors to be financially literate. This article investigates the determinants of boards' financial expertise using a sample of 95 nonfinancial French listed firms. We construct a measure of financial expertise based on educational and career background data for 943 individuals occupying 1140 posts in our sample and explore the determinants of average per-firm financial expertise using a Tobit analysis. We find that average financial expertise is negatively associated with board type (two-tier versus one-tier) and growth opportunities and positively associated with board independence, ownership concentration, and institutional ownership. These findings are robust to sensitivity analyses.

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  • Jeanjean, Thomas & Stolowy, Hervé, 2009. "Determinants of board members' financial expertise -- Empirical evidence from France," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 378-402, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:accoun:v:44:y:2009:i:4:p:378-402
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    2. Sarah Athirah Saruchi & Nor Aiza Mohd Zamil & Rohaida Basiruddin & Nor Faezah Ghazi Ahmad, 2019. "Examining the Impact of Corporate Governance on Intellectual Capital: Empirical Evidence of Islamic Banks," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 9(3), pages 104-117, July.
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    4. Nicolas Aubert, 2016. "Does the Catering Theory of Dividend Apply to the French Listed Firms?," Bankers, Markets & Investors, ESKA Publishing, issue 145, pages 27-38, November-.
    5. Aymen Ammari & Sarra Amdouni & Ahmed Zemzem & Abderrazak Ellouze, 2016. "The Effect of Monitoring Committees on the Relationship between Board Structure and Firm Performance," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-13, December.
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    7. Kamal Anouar & Nicolas Aubert, 2016. "Does the catering theory of dividend apply to the French listed firms?," Working Papers halshs-01401867, HAL.
    8. Paul B. McGuinness, 2018. "IPO Firm Performance and Its Link with Board Officer Gender, Family-Ties and Other Demographics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 499-521, October.
    9. Quoc-Anh Do & Bang Dang Nguyen & Raghavendra- University of Cambridge, Cambridge Judge Business School) Rau, 2013. "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice: What Are Good Directors Made of?," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03460924, HAL.
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    14. Vinnari, Eija & Näsi, Salme, 2013. "Financial and technical competence of municipal board members: Empirical evidence from the water sector," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 488-501.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial expertise Board of directors Supervisory board Corporate governance;

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D53 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Financial Markets

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