摘要
本文关注独立董事任期届满后离任、但经过一段"冷却期"后再次被原上市公司返聘的现象("独立董事返聘")。本文以2003—2016年沪深两市A股上市公司为样本,研究了独立董事返聘对公司违规的影响究竟是基于"学习效应"的抑制效果还是基于"关系效应"的助长效果。研究发现:(1)对独立董事返聘的公司而言,相对于冷却期,返聘期的公司违规显著更少(纵向对比);(2)返聘的独立董事首任期间,公司违规要显著低于冷却期(纵向对比);(3)相较无独立董事返聘、返聘人数更少的公司,返聘人数更多的公司违规显著更少(横向对比)。研究发现支持了"学习效应"假说,即独立董事返聘抑制了公司违规,并非是规避任期规定的手段。
In August 2001,the China Securities Regulatory Commission statutorily required that the longest tenure of each independent director of a Chinese listed firm must be less than six years.Due to this limitation,a number of independent directors left after their term expired.However,they can be rehired by their former firm after a cooling-off period.Scholars and practitioners have expressed concern about the economic consequences of independent directors.Nevertheless,whether rehired independent directors improve corporate governance is a pending question.Rehired independent directors are those who leave a firm at the end of their second term(i.e.,the sixth year)but are then rehired as independent directors by the same firm after a cooling-off period.Given the non-scarcity of independent directors in China,why some Chinese listed firms rehire former independent directors is an open question.On the one hand,the learning effect suggests that rehired independent directors are different from other independent directors because they have accumulated knowledge and potentially formed relationships,allowing them access to internal information.Thus,rehired independent directors can better perform supervisory and consultative roles.On the other hand,the relationship effect suggests that the close relationship between a rehired independent director and the firm may impair the independence of the director.We assess a sample of Chinese listed firms from the 2003-2016 period to examine the effect of rehired independent directors on corporate misconduct,and then distinguish the learning effect from the relationship effect.First,the findings show that for firms with rehired independent directors,the number of reported corporate misconduct issues is significantly lower in the rehired period than that in the cooling-off period(vertical comparison).Second,compared with the cooling-off period,the number of instances of corporate misconduct is significantly lower in the first-term period(vertical comparison).Third,the number of corporate
作者
杜兴强
张颖
DU Xingqiang;ZHANG Ying(Center for Accounting Studies/School of Management,Xiamen University)
出处
《金融研究》
CSSCI
北大核心
2021年第4期150-168,共19页
Journal of Financial Research
基金
国家自然科学基金重大项目课题(71790602)
国家自然科学基金面上项目(71572162)
教育部人文社科基地重大项目(16JJD790032)的资助。
关键词
独立董事
返聘
公司治理
学习效应
关系效应
Independent Director
Rehiring
Corporate Governance
Learning Effect
Relationship Effect
