Skip to main content

Posts

The Impact of CEO Political Ideology on Labour Cost Reductions and Payout Decisions During the COVID-19 Pandemic

How did CEOs of S&P500 firms react to the COVID-19 pandemic? Did they prioritize shareholders by meeting dividend expectations or did they secure jobs? In a study, I conducted with Ali Bayat, Panagiotis Koutroumpis and Xingjie Wei, we find that the answer to this question depends on the CEOs' political orientation. The study is forthcoming in the Journal of Corporate Finance . A brief podcast summarising the study is available below. Marc Goergen · Podcast - Covid paper
Recent posts

CEO Duality

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 .

Measuring the Ownership and Control of UK Listed Firms: Some Methodological Challenges

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 .

The European Corporation: Ownership and Control after 25 Years of Corporate Governance Reforms

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 .

2023 Conference of the International Corporate Governance Society (ICGS) at IE University in Madrid

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 ViƱes Fiestas , Amy Hillman and Zacharias Sautner . More information can be obtained from the conference website at https://www.ie.edu/icgs2023/ .

It's a Matter of Trust

I use my research to analyze how the levels of trust in a society impact shareholder voting.  Trust lies under all business relations. While contracts may tie us together and can be helpful in specifying the rights and obligations of signatories in specific situations, a contract can never really cover every eventuality. Thus, at the end of the day, there is trust – and it is necessary when entering into a contractual relationship with a new counterparty. Ultimately, trust enables strangers to work together and to produce goods and services. At the global level, high levels of trust may explain why some countries have been striving economically while others are stuck in what economists call a low-trust poverty trap. Please see here for details.

Governance Through Ownership and Sustainable Corporate Governance

In my latest publication for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management , I define sustainable corporate governance  as follows: "Sustainable corporate governance is the set of arrangements that ensure that the firm focuses on maximizing long-term shareholder value, which goes hand in hand with the consideration of broader stakeholder interests in the firm’s decision-making. The focus on long-term shareholder value creation not only enhances the survival of the firm in the long run, but it also promotes the preservation of the firm’s ecosystem." I then review the literature on whether and how different types of shareholders promote sustainable corporate governance in their investee firms. Read more here . Source:   Goergen, M. (2022), ‘Governance through Ownership and Sustainable Corporate Governance’, in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management , Oxford University Press, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190224851.013.370 .