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We study asymmetric performance benchmarking in Chinese executive compensation contracts between 2000 and 2010. We predict that while relative performance evaluation criteria are important in executive pay contracts, managerial power and influence will result in a decoupling between pay and performance. We predict that Chinese managers are rewarded for superior performance but not penalized for inferior performance. We test this asymmetric pay-for-performance hypothesis using three performance benchmarks: whether firm performance is positive/negative, above/below industry average, and above/below regional average. We find the sensitivity between executive compensation and firm accounting performance is asymmetric. It is significantly stronger when firm accounting performance is positive or firm performance exceeds industry or regional median benchmarks compared to cases when firm accounting performance is negative or is below industry or regional median benchmarks. We find little evidence that ownership structure and internal governance mechanisms moderate the asymmetric pay-for-performance relationship.

This study investigates the relation between CEO compensation and corporate fraud in China. We document a significantly negative correlation between CEO compensation and corporate fraud using data on publicly traded firms between 2005 and 2010. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that firms penalize CEOs for fraud by lowering their pay. We also find that CEO compensation is lower in firms that commit more severe frauds. Panel data fixed effects and propensity score methods are used to demonstrate these effects. Our results also indicate that corporate governance mechanisms influence the magnitude of punishment. We find that CEOs of privately controlled firms, firms that split the posts of CEO and chairman, and CEOs of firms located in developed regions suffer larger compensation penalties for committing financial fraud. Finally, we show that CEOs at firms that commit fraud are more likely to be replaced compared to those at non-fraud firms.

We investigate the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) turnover and firm performance in China's publicly traded firms. We provide evidence on the use of accounting and market-based performance measures in CEO turnover decision. We also investigate the moderating roles of noise in performance measures, firm growth opportunities, state-owned enterprises, and corporate governance reform on the weights attached to these performance measures. We observe that Chinese listed firms rely more on accounting performance than on stock market performance when determining CEO turnover. Firms with noisier performance measures and larger growth opportunities rely less on both accounting performance and stock market performance in CEO replacement decision. State-controlled firms are more likely to use accounting performance to determine CEO turnover. Finally, we observe that the weight attached to the accounting performance measure is significantly reduced and the weight attached to the stock market performance measure is significantly increased after the governance reform. We also observe that the reform has different impact on state-owned firms and private firms in terms of the sensitivity of CEO turnover to firm performance.

We provide evidence on the use of accounting versus stock market performance measures as determinants of Chinese top managers’ compensation over 2001–2007. We theorize and find that (1) accounting returns are weighted more heavily in general than stock returns in determining top executive compensation, (2) state-owned enterprises (SOEs) rely significantly less on stock market returns than do non-SOEs, (3) firms located in high marketization regions rely more heavily on stock market returns to reward managers, and (4) firms with better internal governance quality rely more on stock returns to reward executives. We discuss our findings with particular reference to the Chinese context of our research.

We investigate executivecompensation and corporategovernance in China's publicly traded firms. We also compare executive pay in China to the USA. Consistent with agency theory, we find that executivecompensation is positively correlated to firm performance. The study shows that executive pay and CEO incentives are lower in State controlled firms and firms with concentrated ownership structures. Boardroom governance is important. We find that firms with more independent directors on the board have a higher pay-for-performance link. Non-State (private) controlled firms and firms with more independent directors on the board are more likely to replace the CEO for poor performance. Finally, we document that US executive pay (salary and bonus) is about seventeen times higher than in China. Significant differences in US–China pay persist even after controlling for economic and governance factors.

The dissertation studies corporate governance as an integrated system under the influence of the legal and regulatory environment, the internal control mechanism, and managerial attributes. The dissertation uses a firm's internal control mechanism as a central point to lay out the framework. It aims at addressing three issues: Whether there exists managerial power in executive compensation decisions; What are the sources of managerial power; Whether these exists one best governance design for all types of managers. The dissertation has three essays. First, a theoretical model shows the impact of regulation stringency, monitoring efficiency, managerial discretion, risk-aversion, and ethics on the optimal governance design and a firm's capability to constrain managerial power and mitigate managerial diversion. Second, an empirical paper investigates the link between lockup policies at the initial public offerings and executive compensation and incentives. This essay finds that lockup existence and lockup length are negatively associated with executive total compensation and positively associated with executive equity incentives. Third, another empirical paper compares founder-CEOs with non-founder CEOs in newly public firms with respect to executive compensation, board structure, financial performance and firm survival. This essay finds that founder-CEOs earn smaller incentive compensation and smaller total compensation than professional CEOs. Founder-managed firms are associated with better financial performance and are more likely to survive. In addition, a founder-CEO is associated with even better firm performance when the position of CEO and chair is combined.

This study investigates executive compensation, corporate governance and the determination of CEO equity incentives in US entrepreneurial high technology firms. We find the following. First, CEO equity incentives in these new enterprise firms are twenty times larger than that which previous large firm studies have found. Second, both economic factors (firm size, growth opportunities, and risk) and governance factors (founder, venture capitalist presence, board structure, and ownership distribution) determine CEO incentives in these firms. We document instances where direct monitoring arrangements (e.g. venture capitalist monitoring) act as substitutes for explicit incentives in aligning shareholder and CEO interests.

This study uses a sample of IPO firms to investigate the relation between the compensation committee, CEO compensation, and CEO incentives. We investigate two theoretical models: the three‐tier optimal contracting model and the managerial power model. We find support for the three‐tier agency model. The presence of significant shareholders on the compensation committee (i.e., those with share stakes in excess of 5 percent) is associated with lower CEO pay and higher CEO equity incentives. Firms with higher paid compensation committee members are associated with greater CEO compensation and lower incentives. The managerial power model receives little support. We find no evidence that insiders or CEOs of other firms serving on the compensation committee raise the level of CEO pay or lower CEO incentives.