Date of Award

5-2021

Document Type

Campus Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Business Administration

First Advisor

Lucia S. Gao

Second Advisor

Xiaolu Xu

Third Advisor

Zafer Yuksel

Abstract

Motivated by the heated debate regarding the efficiency of government ownership, I conduct a series of studies on its role in financial markets. Particularly, I focus on three aspects of the impact of government ownership, namely, firm performance, CEO compensation, and investor behavior. I exploit a powerful setting in the context of China where there is a sufficient presence of government ownership (compared to the US market). In three essays I investigate and address the following research questions: (1) How do female CEOs interact with government ownership and influence firm performance? (2) Do all CEO pay regulations backfire in terms of deteriorating firm performance? (3) Does government ownership impact stock return herding during market distress? The first essay shows that there exists a female leadership advantage under state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The second essay finds that not all CEO pay restricting policies decrease firm performance. The third essay suggests that investors exhibit herding behavior around government ownership during market distress. This series of studies sheds new light on the role of government ownership and adds to the debate regarding its efficiency. My research is not only relevant to the academic community but also a broader range of audiences, such as CEOs, directors, regulators, policy makers, and investors. For instance, SOEs will play an increasingly important role in the post-pandemic global economy given that governments are taking equity stakes of financially distressed firms.

Comments

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