Corporate risk-taking after adoption of compensation clawback provisions

Abstract

The adoption of clawbacks purports to mitigate harmful behavior to firms’ operation, including excessive corporate risk-taking at the expense of investors’ interests and firms’ long-term benefits. This study empirically examines whether corporate risk-taking declines after the adoption of clawback provisions in the compensation contracts of top executives in publicly traded US firms. Using a sample of clawback adopters and non-adopters in the Russell 3000 Index firms during the period 2005–2014, we find that the presence of clawback provisions is significantly associated with a lower level of corporate risk-taking as reflected by firms’ investment strategies and their capital structure. Additional analyses suggest that this association is stronger for small firms and for firms audited by Big 4 auditors. Robustness checks of using alternative measures for corporate risk-taking, controlling for the occurrence of financial restatements, board independence, and internal control quality, and employing a propensity matching score matching sample further support the main results. Overall, the results of this study indicate more conservative corporate risk-taking behavior after the adoption of clawbacks.