Three Essays on the Compensation, Structure, and Decision Making of the Board of Directors

Download or read book Three Essays on the Compensation, Structure, and Decision Making of the Board of Directors written by Duong Thuy Pham and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My second essay explores the role CEO gender plays in shaping the board of directors. The literature provides strong evidence that male CEOs are more overconfident than female CEOs. I contend that a male CEO, who may overestimate his ability and/or underestimate the monitoring role of the board, will prefer to exert as much control over the board as possible and thus prefer a weaker board. I find consistent results that new male CEOs are more likely to increase board size, decrease board independence, reduce board gender diversification, have worse director attendance and have lower overall board monitoring. In contrast, new female CEOs have more gender diversified boards and are associated with an increase in overall board monitoring intensity. I also find supporting evidence in terms of CEO compensation, where new male CEOs gain more control and are compensated more in both total compensation and equity compensation post transition, consistent with what we expect from a weaker board.