IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v48y2022ics1544612322002483.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public attention and executive perks: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Jian
  • Yuan, Yue
  • Zhang, Yinge
  • Xu, Jian

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of public attention on executive perks. To establish causality, we exploit an exogenous shock in public attention measured by whether the actual controller of the firm appeared on the Rich List in China. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find that firms with their actual controller on the Rich List generate fewer executive perks than those that are not influenced by the event. Our findings also demonstrate that external information environments and corporate governance can serve as the economic mechanisms. With the increase of public attention, the information asymmetry is reduced and the corporate governance is improved, thus discouraging the executive perks.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Jian & Yuan, Yue & Zhang, Yinge & Xu, Jian, 2022. "Public attention and executive perks: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:48:y:2022:i:c:s1544612322002483
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.103010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612322002483
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2022.103010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2003. "Enjoying the Quiet Life? Corporate Governance and Managerial Preferences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(5), pages 1043-1075, October.
    2. Li, Feng & Srinivasan, Suraj, 2011. "Corporate governance when founders are directors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(2), pages 454-469.
    3. Womack, Kent L, 1996. "Do Brokerage Analysts' Recommendations Have Investment Value?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(1), pages 137-167, March.
    4. Alexander Dyck & Natalya Volchkova & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "The Corporate Governance Role of the Media: Evidence from Russia," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1093-1135, June.
    5. Mutchler, JF & Hopwood, W & McKeown, JM, 1997. "The influence of contrary information and mitigating factors on audit opinion decisions on bankrupt companies," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 295-310.
    6. Hongbin Cai & Hanming Fang & Lixin Colin Xu, 2011. "Eat, Drink, Firms, Government: An Investigation of Corruption from the Entertainment and Travel Costs of Chinese Firms," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(1), pages 55-78.
    7. Chia-Wei Chen & Christos Pantzalis & Jung Chul Park, 2013. "Press Coverage And Stock Price Deviation From Fundamental Value," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 36(2), pages 175-214, June.
    8. Donghui Wu & Qing Ye, 2020. "Public Attention and Auditor Behavior: The Case of Hurun Rich List in China," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 777-825, June.
    9. Donghua Chen & Oliver Zhen Li & Shangkun Liang, 2016. "Perk consumption as a suboptimal outcome under pay regulations," Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 373-399, October.
    10. Core, John E. & Guay, Wayne & Larcker, David F., 2008. "The power of the pen and executive compensation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 1-25, April.
    11. Camelia M. Kuhnen & Alexandra Niessen, 2012. "Public Opinion and Executive Compensation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(7), pages 1249-1272, July.
    12. Paul C. Tetlock, 2007. "Giving Content to Investor Sentiment: The Role of Media in the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1139-1168, June.
    13. Luo, Wei & Zhang, Yi & Zhu, Ning, 2011. "Bank ownership and executive perquisites: New evidence from an emerging market," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 352-370, April.
    14. Core, John E., 2001. "A review of the empirical disclosure literature: discussion," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 441-456, September.
    15. Easterbrook, Frank H, 1984. "Two Agency-Cost Explanations of Dividends," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 650-659, September.
    16. Healy, Paul M. & Palepu, Krishna G., 2001. "Information asymmetry, corporate disclosure, and the capital markets: A review of the empirical disclosure literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 405-440, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Jing & Huang, Xiaoqi & Liu, Xinghe & Xiong, Hao & Xu, Cheng, 2023. "Self-discipline or self-interest: CEOs’ hometown identity and excess perks," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lili Dai & Rui Shen & Bohui Zhang, 2021. "Does the media spotlight burn or spur innovation?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 343-390, March.
    2. Tsai, Feng-Tse & Lu, Hsin-Min & Hung, Mao-Wei, 2016. "The impact of news articles and corporate disclosure on credit risk valuation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 100-116.
    3. Donghui Wu & Qing Ye, 2020. "Public Attention and Auditor Behavior: The Case of Hurun Rich List in China," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 777-825, June.
    4. Dang, Tung Lam & Dang, Man & Hoang, Luong & Nguyen, Lily & Phan, Hoang Long, 2020. "Media coverage and stock price synchronicity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    5. Dang, Tung Lam & Dang, Viet Anh & Moshirian, Fariborz & Nguyen, Lily & Zhang, Bohui, 2019. "News media coverage and corporate leverage adjustments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    6. Lili Dai & Jerry T. Parwada & Bohui Zhang, 2015. "The Governance Effect of the Media's News Dissemination Role: Evidence from Insider Trading," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 331-366, May.
    7. Li, Bin & Yao, Yao & Shahab, Yasir & Li, Hai-Xia & Ntim, Collins G., 2020. "Parent-subsidiary dispersion and executive excess perks consumption," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    8. Bang Dang Nguyen, 2015. "Is More News Good News? Media Coverage of CEOs, Firm Value, and Rent Extraction," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(04), pages 1-38, December.
    9. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    10. Gao, Xin & Xu, Weidong & Li, Donghui, 2022. "Media coverage and corporate risk-taking: International evidence," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    11. Jingoo Kang & Andy Y. Han Kim, 2017. "The Relationship Between CEO Media Appearances and Compensation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(3), pages 379-394, June.
    12. Philip Brown & Andrew Ferguson & Andrew B. Jackson, 2009. "Pierpont and the Capital Market," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 45(2), pages 147-170, June.
    13. Baker, H. Kent & Dutta, Shantanu & Saadi, Samir & Zhong, Ligang, 2022. "Does media coverage affect credit rating change decisions?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    14. Jiexiang Huang & Helen Roberts & Eric K. M. Tan, 2022. "The media and CEO dominance," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 5-35, March.
    15. Lixiang Wang & Wendi Hou & Yupei Liu, 2023. "How do co‐shareholding networks affect negative media coverage? Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(4), pages 4221-4249, December.
    16. Chia-Ying Chan & Iftekhar Hasan & Chih-Yung Lin, 2021. "Agency cost of CEO perquisites in bank loan contracts," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1221-1258, May.
    17. Baloria, Vishal P. & Heese, Jonas, 2018. "The effects of media slant on firm behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(1), pages 184-202.
    18. Wu, Yanling & Tian, Gary Gang, 2021. "Public relations expenditure, media tone, and regulatory decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    19. Yangyang Chen & C. S. Agnes Cheng & Shuo Li & Jingran Zhao, 2021. "The monitoring role of the media: Evidence from earnings management," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3-4), pages 533-563, March.
    20. Zhang, Ping & Wang, Yiru, 2023. "The bright side of analyst coverage on corporate innovation: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:48:y:2022:i:c:s1544612322002483. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.