PROF. MARC GOERGEN ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

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 .

I have just received my copy of "The European Corporation: Ownership and Control after 25 Years of Corporate Governance Reforms". The book studies changes in corporate ownership and control from the 1990s to 2018/19. The book, which is edited by Evgeni Peev and Klaus Gugler and published by Cambridge University Press & Assessment, covers a number of countries. These include Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the UK. The book benefits from contributions by Johan Eklund, Rondi Laura, and Alexander Wagner among others. I am the author of the chapter on the UK. Ultimately, the book attempts to answer the important question as to whether national corporate governance systems have converged or not since the 1990s. More information about the book can be found here .

Jointly with my colleagues Patricia Gabaldon and Juan Pedro Gomez , I am pleased to organise the 2023 annual conference of the International Corporate Governance Society in Madrid at IE University on 20-22 October 2023. The conference theme is Sustainable Corporate Governance. Paper proposals and full papers can be submitted until 30 June 2023. The keynote speakers will be Helena Viñes Fiestas , Amy Hillman and Zacharias Sautner . More information can be obtained from the conference website at https://www.ie.edu/icgs2023/ .