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Effects of Litigation Risk on Board Oversight and CEO Incentive Pay

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  • Volker Laux

    (McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712)

Abstract

Various commentators have praised the WorldCom and Enron settlements for holding outside directors personally liable, arguing that heightened director liability will induce greater board oversight. This paper shows that the connection between director liability and board behavior is more subtle, because directors have multiple means to respond to an increase in liability exposure: They can increase oversight to prevent accounting manipulation and/or reduce performance-based CEO pay to mitigate the CEO's ex ante incentive to engage in manipulation. These two decisions are interrelated, implying that the effects of director liability on board oversight and CEO incentive pay are ambiguous. In particular, the model predicts that, for firms in which board oversight is difficult and costly (e.g., large firms with complex business operations), a stricter legal environment for directors leads to a lower level of board oversight, lower CEO incentive pay, and lower shareholder value.

Suggested Citation

  • Volker Laux, 2010. "Effects of Litigation Risk on Board Oversight and CEO Incentive Pay," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(6), pages 938-948, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:56:y:2010:i:6:p:938-948
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1100.1165
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Chang, Shih-Chung & Ren, Yayuan & Yeh, Jason, 2018. "The role of information: When is Directors’ and Officers’ insurance value-added?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 189-197.
    2. Yanmin Gao & Jeong-Bon Kim & Desmond Tsang & Haibin Wu, 2017. "Go before the whistle blows: an empirical analysis of director turnover and financial fraud," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 320-360, March.
    3. Shu, Pei-Gi & Chiang, Sue-Jane, 2020. "The impact of corporate governance on corporate social performance: Cases from listed firms in Taiwan," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    4. Tobias Körner, 2017. "Board Accountability and Risk Taking in Banking: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 155-190, December.
    5. Mircea Epure & Esteban Lafuente, 2015. "Monitoring bank performance in the presence of risk," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 265-281, December.
    6. Nurit Nahum & Abraham Carmeli, 2020. "Leadership style in a board of directors: implications of involvement in the strategic decision-making process," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(1), pages 199-227, March.
    7. Sarfraz Khan & John K. Wald, 2015. "Director Liability Protection, Earnings Management, and Audit Pricing," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(4), pages 781-814, December.
    8. Gu, Junjian, 2021. "FDI characteristics, industry homogeneity, and audit fees in Japanese multinationals," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    9. Nguyen, Nam H. & Phan, Hieu V. & Lee, Eunju, 2020. "Shareholder litigation rights and capital structure decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    10. Habib, Ahsan & Jiang, Haiyan & Bhuiyan, Md. Borhan Uddin & Islam, Ainul, 2014. "Litigation risk, financial reporting and auditing: A survey of the literature," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 145-163.
    11. Leonard Leye Li & Gary S. Monroe & Jeff Coulton, 2023. "Managerial litigation risk and corporate investment efficiency: Evidence from universal demand laws," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 196-232, March.
    12. Brochet, Francois & Srinivasan, Suraj, 2014. "Accountability of independent directors: Evidence from firms subject to securities litigation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 430-449.
    13. Raúl Barroso & Chiraz Ben Ali & Cédric Lesage, 2018. "Blockholders’ Ownership and Audit Fees: The Impact of the Corporate Governance Model," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 149-172, January.
    14. Kubick, Thomas R. & Lockhart, G. Brandon & Mauer, David C., 2023. "Judge ideology and debt contracting," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    15. Chan, Konan & Chen, Vincent Y.S. & Huang, Yu-Fang & Liang, Jia-Wen, 2023. "Outside directors' equity incentives and strategic alliance decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    16. Kim, Irene & Skinner, Douglas J., 2012. "Measuring securities litigation risk," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 290-310.
    17. Balsam, Steven & Kwack, So Yean & Lee, Jae Young, 2017. "Network connections, CEO compensation and involuntary turnover: The impact of a friend of a friend," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 220-244.
    18. Jeremy Bertomeu & Edwige Cheynel & Davide Cianciaruso, 2021. "Strategic Withholding and Imprecision in Asset Measurement," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(5), pages 1523-1571, December.
    19. Allen Huang & Kai Wai Hui & Reeyarn Zhiyang Li, 2019. "Federal Judge Ideology: A New Measure of Ex Ante Litigation Risk," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(2), pages 431-489, May.

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