PROF. MARC GOERGEN ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

A CEO’s political beliefs can significantly influence corporate decisions, dividend policies, and workforce management. The personal political beliefs of CEOs can significantly influence corporate decisions, including dividend policies and workforce management. Research indicates that conservative CEOs, who are generally more risk-averse and prudent, tend to favor stable dividend payouts. In contrast, liberal CEOs, who are more open to change and innovation, may prefer to reinvest earnings into the company rather than distribute them as dividends. Please see my latest article for IE Insights for further details.

My latest study with Luc Renneboog and Yang Zhao looks at insider trades by directors who sit on multiple boards. When these directors face a trading ban in one of their firms due to an impending earnings announcement, we find they often trade in one of their other firms, using their private information, and they make a profit by doing so. These trades aren't illegal, but are they ethical? You can hear more about our findings in this podcast . An executive summary is available from the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance . The study itself can be downloaded from the website of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) .

Ever wondered how a CEO's political ideology influences their company's payout policy? In my latest study with Ali Bayat, we find that conservative CEOs are not only more likely to pay dividends, but they also pay higher dividends and often combine them with share repurchases. Interestingly, these payouts are typically funded by drawing on cash reserves and cutting back on capital and R&D spending. Our full study will be published soon in the Journal of Banking and Finance. You can read it here . A podcast summarising the study is available from here .

How did CEOs of S&P500 firms navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic? Did they prioritize shareholders by maintaining dividends, or did they focus on protecting jobs? In a recent study conducted with my co-authors Ali Bayat , Panagiotis Koutroumpis and Xingjie Wei , we find that the answer to this question depends on a CEO's political orientation. The study was published in the Journal of Corporate Finance where it is available for free via open access . A brief podcast discussing the study is available below. Marc Goergen · Podcast - Covid paper

Please follow this link for a recent article in the Lex column of the Financial Times covering my research on CEO duality. The study in question is discussed in more detail in one of my earlier blog posts .

The ownership and control of listed UK firms is often thought to be much simpler than the ownership and control of listed firms from most of the rest of the world, including Continental Europe. However, a study I coauthored with Svetlana Mira shows that this is not always the case. For example, the distinction between beneficial and non-beneficial holdings can introduce duplication in the holdings of insiders, which may be difficult to resolve. In a study forthcoming in The British Accounting Review, we highlight a number of challenges that researchers face when determining the ownership and control of listed UK firms. We propose ways of tackling these challenges. We expect these challenges to become more pronounced over the next years due to the recent changes to the UK listing rules following the Hill review. The study is available free of charge from here .