IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/assmgt/v9y2008i2d10.1057_jam.2008.13.html

Ownership, governance mechanisms, and agency costs in China’s listed firms

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Firth
  • Peter M Y Fung
  • Oliver M Rui

    (Lingnan University)

Abstract

Our study analyses the relations among agency costs, ownership structure, and governance mechanisms in Chinese listed firms. We find that firms with foreign shareholders incur higher agency costs. Legal person shareholders, our proxy for institutional investors, and government ownership have no impact on the level of agency costs. We also find that boards with a majority of outside directors are not associated with lower agency costs. There is some evidence that concentrated ownership is associated with lower agency costs. Although Chinese listed firms have engaged in ownership and governance reform, this has not manifested itself in a reduction in agency costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Firth & Peter M Y Fung & Oliver M Rui, 2008. "Ownership, governance mechanisms, and agency costs in China’s listed firms," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(2), pages 90-101, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:9:y:2008:i:2:d:10.1057_jam.2008.13
    DOI: 10.1057/jam.2008.13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/jam.2008.13
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/jam.2008.13?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrei Shleifer, 1998. "State versus Private Ownership," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 133-150, Fall.
    2. Hart, Oliver, 1995. "Corporate Governance: Some Theory and Implications," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(430), pages 678-689, May.
    3. Agrawal, Anup & Mandelker, Gershon N., 1990. "Large Shareholders and the Monitoring of Managers: The Case of Antitakeover Charter Amendments," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(2), pages 143-161, June.
    4. Chen, Gongmeng & Firth, Michael & Rui, Oliver, 2006. "Have China's enterprise reforms led to improved efficiency and profitability?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 82-109, March.
    5. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1986. "Large Shareholders and Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 461-488, June.
    6. Berger, Philip G & Ofek, Eli & Yermack, David L, 1997. "Managerial Entrenchment and Capital Structure Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(4), pages 1411-1438, September.
    7. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 2008. "Theory of the firm: managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," RAE - Revista de Administração de Empresas, FGV-EAESP Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (Brazil), vol. 48(2), April.
    8. Firth, Michael & Lin, Chen & Wong, Sonia M.L., 2008. "Leverage and investment under a state-owned bank lending environment: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 642-653, December.
    9. James S. Ang & Rebel A. Cole & James Wuh Lin, 2000. "Agency Costs and Ownership Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 81-106, February.
    10. Doukas, John A. & McKnight, Phillip J. & Pantzalis, Christos, 2005. "Security analysis, agency costs, and UK firm characteristics," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 493-507.
    11. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    12. Pound, John, 1988. "Proxy contests and the efficiency of shareholder oversight," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 237-265, January.
    13. Benjamin E. Hermalin & Michael S. Weisbach, 1988. "The Determinants of Board Composition," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(4), pages 589-606, Winter.
    14. Chenchuramaiah T. Bathala & Kenneth P. Moon & Ramesh P. Rao, 1994. "Managerial Ownership, Debt Policy, and the Impact of Institutional Holdings: An Agency Perspective," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 23(3), Fall.
    15. Mayers, David & Shivdasani, Anil & Smith, Clifford W, Jr, 1997. "Board Composition and Corporate Control: Evidence from the Insurance Industry," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(1), pages 33-62, January.
    16. Nolan, Peter & Xiaoqiang, Wang, 1999. "Beyond privatization: Institutional innovation and growth in China's large state-owned enterprises," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 169-200, January.
    17. Singh, Manohar & Davidson III, Wallace N., 2003. "Agency costs, ownership structure and corporate governance mechanisms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 793-816, May.
    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. Ajay Yadav & Jaya Mamta Prosad & Sumanjeet Singh, 2023. "Pre-IPO Financial Performance and Offer Price Estimation: Evidence from India," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-19, February.
    2. Omar Fareed Shaqqour, 2020. "Impact of Institutional Governance Tools on Reducing Agency Costs to Commercial Banks Listed in the Amman Stock Exchange," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(5), pages 414-423, October.
    3. Wang, Di & Liu, Guangqiang & Xie, Linlin, 2023. "Can compulsory liability insurance reduce agency costs? Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    4. Mahdi Salehi & Mohammad Sadegh Adibian & Zakiyeh Sadatifar & Ehsan Khansalar, 2021. "The relationship between corporate governance characteristics and agency costs," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 39(1), pages 199-220.

    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. Rossi, Fabrizio & Barth, James R. & Cebula, Richard J., 2018. "Do shareholder coalitions affect agency costs? Evidence from Italian-listed companies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 181-200.
    2. Ratnam Vijayakumaran, 2019. "Agency Costs, Ownership, and Internal Governance Mechanisms: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(1), pages 133-154, January.
    3. Helen Short & Kevin Keasey & Darren Duxbury, 2002. "Capital Structure, Management Ownership and Large External Shareholders: A UK Analysis," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 375-399.
    4. Julan Du & Charles Ka Yui Leung & Derek Chu, 2014. "Return Enhancing, Cash-rich or simply Empire-Building? An Empirical Investigation of Corporate Real Estate Holdings," International Real Estate Review, Global Social Science Institute, vol. 17(3), pages 301-357.
    5. McKnight, Phillip J. & Weir, Charlie, 2009. "Agency costs, corporate governance mechanisms and ownership structure in large UK publicly quoted companies: A panel data analysis," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 139-158, May.
    6. Christian Engelen, 2015. "The effects of managerial discretion on moral hazard related behaviour: German evidence on agency costs," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 19(4), pages 927-960, November.
    7. Purkayastha, Saptarshi & Veliyath, Rajaram & George, Rejie, 2022. "Type I and type II agency conflicts in family firms: An empirical investigation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 285-299.
    8. Shahab U Din & Attiya Javid & Muhammad Imran, 2013. "External and Internal Ownership Concentration and Debt Decisions in an Emerging Market: Evidence from Pakistan," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(12), pages 1583-1597.
    9. repec:mth:ijafr8:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:256-277 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Omar Al Farooque, 2021. "Agency-Linked Risk Management with Ownership and Board Sub-Committee Governance: Evidence from an OECD Economy," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, October.
    11. Ujjayini Roy & Indrani Chakraborty, 2023. "Market concentration, agency cost and firm performance: a case study on Indian corporate firms," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 2645-2693, August.
    12. Driss, Hamdi & Drobetz, Wolfgang & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane, 2021. "Institutional investment horizons, corporate governance, and credit ratings: International evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    13. Surroca Aguilar, Jorge & Tribo Gine, José Antonio, 2009. "Is managerial entrenchment always bad? : a CSR approach," IC3JM - Estudios = Working Papers id-09-01, Instituto Mixto Carlos III - Juan March de Ciencias Sociales (IC3JM).
    14. Krishna Dayal Pandey & Tarak Nath Sahu, 2021. "Ownership Concentration and Agency Crises in Indian Manufacturing Firms," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 9(1), pages 128-143, January.
    15. Lily Qiu, 2004. "Which Institutional Investors Monitor? Evidence from Acquisition Activity," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2497, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Jun 2006.
    16. Yuan George Shan & Indrit Troshani & Jimin Wang & Lu Zhang, 2023. "Managerial ownership and financial distress: evidence from the Chinese stock market," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(1), pages 192-221, May.
    17. Yishu Fu & Shih-Cheng Lee & Lei Xu & Ralf Zurbruegg, 2015. "The Effectiveness of Capital Regulation on Bank Behavior in China," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 15(3), pages 321-345, September.
    18. Li, Xiafei & Luo, Di, 2020. "Increase in cash holdings of U.S. firms: The role of healthcare and technology industries," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 286-298.
    19. Noel O'Sullivan & Pauline Wong, 1999. "Board composition, ownership structure and hostile takeovers: some UK evidence," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 139-155.
    20. Aldrighi, Dante Mendes, 2003. "The Mechanisms of Corporate Governance in the United States: an Assessment," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 57(3), July.
    21. Khaled Hussainey & Khaled Aljifri, 2012. "Corporate governance mechanisms and capital structure in UAE," Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(2), pages 145-160, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    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:pal:assmgt:v:9:y:2008:i:2:d:10.1057_jam.2008.13. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.