Title of dissertation: SELECTION OF STAR CEOS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON FIRM PERFORMANCE AND CEO COMPENSATION Minwen Li, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation directed by: Professor Vojislav Maksimovic, Dean's Chair Professor of Finance, Department of Finance My dissertation examines a board’s decision to hire a star CEO and the implication of such decision on the new CEO compensation and firm ...

When financial markets are not well developed and when shareholders are not well protected, the role of the board of directors becomes more important as the only available control mechanism for management opportunism. Venezuela is an ideal case study to test this proposition because both of these issues are particularly severe. The specific question that we want to answer is: Does corporate the...

We derive conditions under which limits on executive compensation can enhance efficiency and benefit shareholders (but not executives). Having its hands tied in the future allows a board of directors to credibly enter into relational contracts with executives that are more efficient than performance-contingent contracts. This has implications for the ideal composition of the board. The analysis...

We derive conditions under which state-imposed limits on executive compensation can enhance efficiency and benefit shareholders (but not executives). Having their hands tied in the future allows a board of directors to credibly enter into relational contracts with executives that are more efficient than performance-based contracts. This in turn can have implications for firm strategy and the id...

Reformists argue that Japanese firms maintain inefficiently few outside directors, while theory suggests market competition should drive firms toward their firm-specifically optimal board structure (if any). The debate suggests three testable hypotheses. First, perhaps board composition does not matter. If so, then firm performance will show no relation to board structure, but outsiders will be...

The quality of governance crucially affects corporate outcomes, and may be particularly important for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) not disciplined by market competition forces. We examine the impact board composition on performance companies controlled public entities in Italy. For this purpose, we exploit a reform-induced exogenous change composition, aimed at increasing female representatio...