IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v64y2019icp271-289.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is CEO pay disparity relevant to seasoned bondholders?

Author

Listed:
  • Huang, Guan-Ying
  • Huang, Henry H.
  • Lee, Chun I

Abstract

We demonstrate the existence of a positive relationship between CEO pay disparity and the yield spreads of seasoned corporate bonds, based on a panel data in the U.S. from 2001 to 2012. The evidence is robust against alternative measures of pay disparity, the inclusion of other determinants of yield spreads as well as industry and year effects, and the potential endogeneity problem. More supporting results from subsamples are presented, including those in the periods of pre- and post-subprime crisis, with varying degrees of agency problems related to free cash flow, with dissimilar default risk, and with different maturities. We further demonstrate that CEO pay disparity does not merely reflect, but rather goes beyond many factors of corporate governance in helping bondholders assess the risks they face. All together, these results convincingly show that pay disparity matters to bondholders.

Suggested Citation

  • Huang, Guan-Ying & Huang, Henry H. & Lee, Chun I, 2019. "Is CEO pay disparity relevant to seasoned bondholders?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 271-289.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:64:y:2019:i:c:p:271-289
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2019.05.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056019304769
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2019.05.014?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. Lin, Tsung-Te & Chou, Jian-Hsin, 2015. "Trade credit and bank loan: Evidence from Chinese firms," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 17-29.
    2. Simpson, W. Gary & Gleason, Anne E., 1999. "Board structure, ownership, and financial distress in banking firms," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 281-292, September.
    3. Robert M. Bowen & Shivaram Rajgopal & Mohan Venkatachalam, 2008. "Accounting Discretion, Corporate Governance, and Firm Performance," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(2), pages 351-405, June.
    4. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1989. "Management entrenchment : The case of manager-specific investments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 123-139, November.
    5. Delianedis, Gordon & Geske, Robert, 2001. "The Components of Corporate Credit Spreads: Default, Recovery, Tax, Jumps, Liquidity, and Market Factors," University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management qt32x284q3, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA.
    6. Duffee, Gregory R, 1999. "Estimating the Price of Default Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(1), pages 197-226.
    7. Garmaise, Mark J & Liu, Jun, 2005. "Corruption, Firm Governance, and the Cost of Capital," University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management qt29403706, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA.
    8. Jones, E Philip & Mason, Scott P & Rosenfeld, Eric, 1984. "Contingent Claims Analysis of Corporate Capital Structures: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 611-625, July.
    9. Francis A. Longstaff & Sanjay Mithal & Eric Neis, 2005. "Corporate Yield Spreads: Default Risk or Liquidity? New Evidence from the Credit Default Swap Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(5), pages 2213-2253, October.
    10. Bebchuk, Lucian A. & Cohen, Alma, 2005. "The costs of entrenched boards," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 409-433, November.
    11. Jun Liu & Francis A. Longstaff & Ravit E. Mandell, 2006. "The Market Price of Risk in Interest Rate Swaps: The Roles of Default and Liquidity Risks," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(5), pages 2337-2360, September.
    12. Ortiz-Molina, Hernan, 2006. "Top Management Incentives and the Pricing of Corporate Public Debt," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 317-340, June.
    13. Ali, Searat & Liu, Benjamin & Su, Jen Je, 2018. "Does corporate governance quality affect default risk? The role of growth opportunities and stock liquidity," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 422-448.
    14. Lee, Shyan Yuan & Chiou, Wan-Jiun Paul & Chung, Yi-Fang, 2017. "Pricing corporate bonds and constructing credit curves in a developing country: The case of the Taiwan bond fund crisis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 261-274.
    15. Rui Albuquerue & Neng Wang, 2008. "Agency Conflicts, Investment, and Asset Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(1), pages 1-40, February.
    16. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation," Scholarly Articles 29407535, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    17. Bebchuk, Lucian A. & Cremers, K.J. Martijn & Peyer, Urs C., 2011. "The CEO pay slice," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 199-221, October.
    18. Raghuram G. Rajan & Julie Wulf, 2006. "The Flattening Firm: Evidence from Panel Data on the Changing Nature of Corporate Hierarchies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 759-773, November.
    19. Duffie, Darrell & Singleton, Kenneth J, 1997. "An Econometric Model of the Term Structure of Interest-Rate Swap Yields," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(4), pages 1287-1321, September.
    20. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    21. Gadanecz, Blaise & Miyajima, Ken & Shu, Chang, 2018. "Emerging market local currency sovereign bond yields: The role of exchange rate risk," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 371-401.
    22. Yermack, David, 1996. "Higher market valuation of companies with a small board of directors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 185-211, February.
    23. Nagano, Mamoru, 2018. "What promotes/prevents firm bond issuance in emerging economies: Bank–firm relationship or information asymmetry?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 161-177.
    24. Jing-Zhi Huang & Ming Huang, 2012. "How Much of the Corporate-Treasury Yield Spread Is Due to Credit Risk?," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 2(2), pages 153-202.
    25. Chao, Chi Chur & Hu, May & Munir, Qaiser & Li, Tongxia, 2017. "The impact of CEO power on corporate capital structure: New evidence from dynamic panel threshold analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 107-120.
    26. Huang, Ying Sophie & Wang, Chia-Jane, 2015. "Corporate governance and risk-taking of Chinese firms: The role of board size," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 96-113.
    27. John Y. Campbell & Glen B. Taksler, 2003. "Equity Volatility and Corporate Bond Yields," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2321-2350, December.
    28. Lucian Arye Bebchuk & Jesse M. Fried, 2003. "Executive Compensation as an Agency Problem," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 71-92, Summer.
    29. Goyal, Vidhan K. & Wang, Wei, 2013. "Debt Maturity and Asymmetric Information: Evidence from Default Risk Changes," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(3), pages 789-817, June.
    30. Sudip Datta & Mai Iskandar‐Datta & Kartik Raman, 2005. "Managerial Stock Ownership and the Maturity Structure of Corporate Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(5), pages 2333-2350, October.
    31. Renée B. Adams & Heitor Almeida & Daniel Ferreira, 2005. "Powerful CEOs and Their Impact on Corporate Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1403-1432.
    32. Core, John E. & Holthausen, Robert W. & Larcker, David F., 1999. "Corporate governance, chief executive officer compensation, and firm performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 371-406, March.
    33. Mark W. Frankena, 1971. "The Influence of Call Provisions and Coupon Rate on the Yields of Corporate Bonds," NBER Chapters, in: Essays on Interest Rates, Volume 2, pages 134-186, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    34. Clark, Jeffrey A, 1984. "Estimation of Economies of Scale in Banking Using a Generalized Functional Form," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 16(1), pages 53-68, February.
    35. Liu, Yixin & Jiraporn, Pornsit, 2010. "The effect of CEO power on bond ratings and yields," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 744-762, September.
    36. Ashbaugh-Skaife, Hollis & Collins, Daniel W. & LaFond, Ryan, 2006. "The effects of corporate governance on firms' credit ratings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 203-243, October.
    37. Longstaff, Francis A & Schwartz, Eduardo S, 1995. "A Simple Approach to Valuing Risky Fixed and Floating Rate Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(3), pages 789-819, July.
    38. Lu, Chia-Wu & Chen, Tsung-Kang & Liao, Hsien-Hsing, 2010. "Information uncertainty, information asymmetry and corporate bond yield spreads," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 2265-2279, September.
    39. Bildersee, John S., 1977. "Price Spreads, Performance, and the Seasoning of New Treasury and Agency Bond Issues," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 433-455, September.
    40. K.J. Martijn Cremers & Vinay B. Nair & Chenyang Wei, 2007. "Governance Mechanisms and Bond Prices," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1359-1388, 2007 07.
    41. Pan, Yihui & Wang, Tracy Yue & Weisbach, Michael S., 2014. "Does Uncertainty about Management Affect Firms' Costs of Borrowing?," Working Paper Series 2014-14, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.
    42. Garbade, Kenneth D & Silber, William L, 1976. "Price Dispersion in the Government Securities Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages 721-740, August.
    43. Diamond, Douglas W, 1991. "Monitoring and Reputation: The Choice between Bank Loans and Directly Placed Debt," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(4), pages 689-721, August.
    44. Klock, Mark S. & Mansi, Sattar A. & Maxwell, William F., 2005. "Does Corporate Governance Matter to Bondholders?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(4), pages 693-719, December.
    45. Anderson, Ronald C. & Mansi, Sattar A. & Reeb, David M., 2004. "Board characteristics, accounting report integrity, and the cost of debt," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 315-342, September.
    46. Klein, April, 2002. "Audit committee, board of director characteristics, and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 375-400, August.
    47. Daniel Jubinski & Amy F. Lipton, 2012. "Equity volatility, bond yields, and yield spreads," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 480-503, May.
    48. Lucian Bebchuk & Alma Cohen & Allen Ferrell, 2009. "What Matters in Corporate Governance?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 783-827, February.
    49. Wang, Hao, 2011. "Managerial entrenchment, equity payout and capital structure," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 36-50, January.
    50. Li, Tongxia & Munir, Qaiser & Abd Karim, Mohd Rahimie, 2017. "Nonlinear relationship between CEO power and capital structure: Evidence from China's listed SMEs," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-21.
    51. Edwin J. Elton & Martin J. Gruber & Deepak Agrawal & Christopher Mann, 2001. "Explaining the Rate Spread on Corporate Bonds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 247-277, February.
    52. Faleye, Olubunmi & Kovacs, Tunde & Venkateswaran, Anand, 2014. "Do Better-Connected CEOs Innovate More?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(5-6), pages 1201-1225, December.
    53. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation : An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 293-315, January.
    54. Newey, Whitney & West, Kenneth, 2014. "A simple, positive semi-definite, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 33(1), pages 125-132.
    55. Chintrakarn, Pandej & Chatjuthamard, Pattanaporn & Tong, Shenghui & Jiraporn, Pornsit, 2018. "How do powerful CEOs view dividends and stock repurchases? Evidence from the CEO pay slice (CPS)," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 49-64.
    56. Sanjeev Bhojraj & Partha Sengupta, 2003. "Effect of Corporate Governance on Bond Ratings and Yields: The Role of Institutional Investors and Outside Directors," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(3), pages 455-476, July.
    57. Murphy, Kevin J., 1999. "Executive compensation," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 38, pages 2485-2563, Elsevier.
    58. Long Chen & David A. Lesmond & Jason Wei, 2007. "Corporate Yield Spreads and Bond Liquidity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(1), pages 119-149, February.
    59. Yu, Fan, 2005. "Accounting transparency and the term structure of credit spreads," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 53-84, January.
    60. Chen, Kevin C. W. & Chen, Zhihong & Wei, K. C. John, 2011. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow and the Effect of Shareholder Rights on the Implied Cost of Equity Capital," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 171-207, February.
    61. Bebchuk, Lucian A. & Fried, Jesse M., 2003. "Executive Compensation as an Agency Problem," Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series qt81q3136r, Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics.
    62. Ederington, Louis H, 1974. "The Yield Spread of New Issues of Corporate Bonds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(5), pages 1531-1543, December.
    63. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:1:p:107-135 is not listed on IDEAS
    64. Paul Brockman & Xiumin Martin & Emre Unlu, 2010. "Executive Compensation and the Maturity Structure of Corporate Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(3), pages 1123-1161, June.
    65. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2485-2563 is not listed on IDEAS
    66. Pierre Collin-Dufresn & Robert S. Goldstein & J. Spencer Martin, 2001. "The Determinants of Credit Spread Changes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(6), pages 2177-2207, December.
    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. Katsiaryna Bardos & Steven E. Kozlowski & Michael R. Puleo, 2021. "Entrenchment or efficiency? CEO‐to‐employee pay ratio and the cost of debt," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 511-533, August.
    2. Ali, Searat & Iqbal, Jamshed & Malik, Ihtisham & Rahman, Dewan, 2024. "Does managerial pay disparity influence BHC default risk?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 1250-1269.
    3. Ali, Searat & Hussain, Nazim & Iqbal, Jamshed, 2021. "Corporate governance and the insolvency risk of financial institutions," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(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. Tanaka, Takanori, 2016. "How do managerial incentives affect the maturity structure of corporate public debt?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PA), pages 130-146.
    2. Chen, Dong, 2012. "Classified boards, the cost of debt, and firm performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 3346-3365.
    3. Song Han & Hao Zhou, 2016. "Effects of Liquidity on the Non-Default Component of Corporate Yield Spreads: Evidence from Intraday Transactions Data," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(03), pages 1-49, September.
    4. Wei Hao & Andrew Prevost & Udomsak Wongchoti, 2018. "Are Low Equity R2 Firms More or Less Transparent? Evidence from the Corporate Bond Market," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 47(4), pages 865-909, December.
    5. Stephanie Heck, 2022. "Corporate bond yields and returns: a survey," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 36(2), pages 179-201, June.
    6. Goldstein, Michael A. & Namin, Elmira Shekari, 2023. "Corporate bond liquidity and yield spreads: A review," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    7. Chongwoo Choe & Gloria Tian & Xiangkang Yin, 2008. "Managerial Power, Stock-Based Compensation, And Firm Performance: Theory And Evidence," Monash Economics Working Papers 21/08, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    8. Xue, Fei & Wang, Xin & Xie, Yan & Zhang, Weihua, 2022. "Does CEO's early life experience affect corporate bond yield spread? Evidence from China's great famine," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1012-1024.
    9. Deniz Anginer & Çelim Yıldızhan, 2018. "Is There a Distress Risk Anomaly? Pricing of Systematic Default Risk in the Cross-section of Equity Returns [The risk-adjusted cost of financial distress]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(2), pages 633-660.
    10. Guo, Liang, 2013. "Determinants of credit spreads: The role of ambiguity and information uncertainty," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 279-297.
    11. Liu, Yixin & Jiraporn, Pornsit, 2010. "The effect of CEO power on bond ratings and yields," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 744-762, September.
    12. Hami Amiraslani & Karl V. Lins & Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2023. "Trust, social capital, and the bond market benefits of ESG performance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 421-462, June.
    13. Tsung-Kang Chen & Hsien-Hsing Liao & Hsiao-Chun Huang, 2014. "Macroeconomic risks of supply chain counterparties and corporate bond yield spreads," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 463-481, October.
    14. Chen, Jun & King, Tao-Hsien Dolly & Wen, Min-Ming, 2020. "Non-executive ownership and private loan pricing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    15. Tanaka, Takanori, 2014. "Corporate governance and the cost of public debt financing: Evidence from Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 315-335.
    16. Collins, Denton & Huang, Henry, 2011. "Management entrenchment and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 356-362, April.
    17. Maciej Firla-Cuchra, 2005. "Explaining Launch Spreads on Structured Bonds," Economics Series Working Papers 230, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    18. Kim, Dong H. & Stock, Duane, 2014. "The effect of interest rate volatility and equity volatility on corporate bond yield spreads: A comparison of noncallables and callables," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 20-35.
    19. Mathur, Ike & Singh, Manohar & Nejadmalayeri, Ali & Jiraporn, Pornsit, 2013. "How do bond investors perceive dividend payouts?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 92-105.
    20. Manfred Frühwirth & Paul Schneider & Leopold Sögner, 2010. "The Risk Microstructure of Corporate Bonds: A Case Study from the German Corporate Bond Market," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 16(4), pages 658-685, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pay disparity; Yield spreads; Credit risk;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:reveco:v:64:y:2019:i:c:p:271-289. 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/inca/620165 .

    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.