Short Tenure Research Articles

Labor Market Mobility and Expectation Management: Evidence from Enforceability of Noncompete Provisions*

ABSTRACTThis study examines how managers' use of expectation management is affected by their labor market mobility, which we measure by the enforceability of noncompete provisions in their employment contracts. Exploiting quasinatural experiments, our difference‐in‐differences analyses provide new causal insights to the growing literature on how managers' career concerns affect their disclosure choices. Consistent with a less mobile labor market imposing more pressure on managers to achieve earnings expectations, we predict and find that managers in US states that tightened enforcement of noncompete provisions are more likely to manage analyst expectations downward. We also find that downward expectation management is used to a greater extent than other tools such as real and accrual‐based earnings management. Additional analysis shows that the increase in expectation management is more pronounced for CEOs with lower general skills or shorter tenures, for firms with more independent boards, and for industries that are more homogeneous. Our path analysis suggests a significant link between increased use of expectation management after tightened noncompete enforcement and meeting and beating earnings expectations, which in turn is linked to lower executive turnover. Overall, our findings suggest that expectation management is an important channel through which noncompete enforcement reduces executive labor market mobility. Our study sheds light on the underlying mechanism through which labor market mobility affects disclosure choices and has important implications for both firms and regulators on the use and enforcement of noncompete provisions.

Directors’ career concerns: Evidence from proxy contests and board interlocks

This paper studies the disciplinary spillover effects of proxy contests on companies that share directors with target firms, that is, interlocked firms. In difference-in-differences tests, I find that interlocked firms reduce excess cash holdings, increase shareholder payouts, cut CEO compensation, and engage in less earnings management in the year after proxy contests. The effects are more pronounced when both the interlocked and target firms have a unitary board and when the interlocking director is up for election, is younger, or has shorter tenure. Overall, the evidence highlights the importance of directors’ career concerns in policy spillovers across firms with board interlocks.

The use of adjusted earnings in performance evaluation

We document widespread adoption of adjustments to earnings for performance evaluation; 84% of our sample of S&P 1500 firms use adjusted earnings for bonus compensation. We find that the transactions removed from adjusted earnings vary widely and include both transitory and nontransitory items. We examine the determinants of using adjusted earnings and find some evidence that boards are more likely to contract using adjusted earnings when firms have high levels of intangible assets, more volatile earnings, CEOs with shorter tenures, CEOs who also act as board chairperson, or larger compensation committees or are reporting losses. We find that firms with an independent chairperson or lead director are less likely to contract using adjusted earnings. We examine the compensation consequences of the use of adjusted earnings and find that CEOs compensated on adjusted earnings are less likely to miss minimum bonus thresholds, are less likely to meet maximum bonus thresholds, and have higher overall bonus compensation, controlling for firm performance. Taken together, our analyses suggest that both managerial power and efficient contracting concerns explain the use of adjusted earnings in CEO compensation contracts.

Fatigue and the Need for Recovery among Latino/a Immigrant Cattle Feedyard Workers

ABSTRACT Cattle feedyards are animal feeding operations where beef cattle are finished to market weight on grain. Cattle feeding can be dirty, demanding, and dangerous work. This study sought to assess the predictors of fatigue and the need for recovery among Latino/a immigrant cattle feedyard workers in the United States. A path model was examined to explore direct and indirect relations among physical fatigue, mental fatigue, need for recovery, job characteristics, and health and sociodemographic covariates. Lower self-reported health, experiencing physical pain, not handling animals, and decreased decision latitude were directly related to increased physical fatigue. Shorter tenure working on cattle feedyards, lower educational level, experiencing physical pain, and increased job demands were directly related to heightened mental fatigue. Being female, experiencing physical pain, an elevated average of hours worked per day, increased job demands, and less decision latitude were directly related to an increased need for recovery and indirectly related to both physical and mental fatigue. Physical and mental fatigue have specific correlates, but job characteristics, including job demands and decision latitude, can directly and indirectly impact workers’ levels of physical and mental fatigue and their need for recovery. Both preventive measures and restructuring work operations may reduce the risk for fatigue and the need for recovery. Implications for cattle feedyard workers, supervisors, and employers are discussed. Finding ways to balance productivity and the well-being of workers should be a high priority for cattle feedyards across the country.

Domestic Factors and Leaders in Foreign Policy Making: The Cases of Nasser and Morsi

It has been a general assumption that leaders have played a vital role in the making of Egypt's foreign policy. This article tries to detail this assumption and illustrates that individual formulation and implementation of foreign policies following the Free Officers' coup d'etat of 1952 and the Egyptian revolution of 2011 cannot be sufficiently clarified in the absence of domestic level explanations. What is found in this study is that various domestic factors paved the way for Nasser to increase his effectiveness on Egypt's foreign policy, whereas they created a compelling environment for Morsi in which he had a lesser influence on its foreign policy during his short tenure.

Demographic Drivers of Workplace Deviance: A Survey of Clinical and Non-Clinical Hospital Professionals

This paper aims to determine the extent to which employee demographic characteristics (gender, age, tenure and professional group) predict an employee’s decision to participate in deviant workplace behavior. We conduct a quantitative field study consisting in a survey of 113 clinical and non-clinical professionals at the three largest hospitals in Brazil. ANOVA and linear regression were used to test the hypothesized model. Our results reveal that those most prone to deviant behavior are the short tenure, young and administrative professionals. Although we found no association between gender and workplace deviance, our results generate specific knowledge on relevant behavioral issues involving clinical and non-clinical hospital professionals. The knowledge of the demographic characteristics that may predict workplace deviance will allow managers to design and implement more accurate control systems and training programs that could reduce this dysfunctional behavior and its negative impact on organizations and society.

Cyprus Under British Colonial Rule: Culture, Politics, and the Movement toward Union with Greece, 1878–1954 by Christos P. Ioannides, and: The Cyprus Frenzy of 1878 and the British Press by Marinos Pourgouris

Reviewed by: Cyprus Under British Colonial Rule: Culture, Politics, and the Movement toward Union with Greece, 1878–1954 by Christos P. Ioannides, and: The Cyprus Frenzy of 1878 and the British Press by Marinos Pourgouris Loizos Kapsalis (bio) Christos P. Ioannides, Cyprus Under British Colonial Rule: Culture, Politics, and the Movement toward Union with Greece, 1878–1954. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. 2019. Pp. xvii + 321. Cloth $115.00. Paper $42.00. eBook $40.50. Marinos Pourgouris, The Cyprus Frenzy of 1878 and the British Press. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. 2019. Pp. xii + 219. 13 illustrations. Cloth $95.00. eBook $90.00. The island of Cyprus passed from Ottoman to British control with the signing of the Anglo-Turkish Convention in the summer of 1878. At that time, the British had only a vague knowledge of the island and its people. And yet, in Britain, the acquisition of the small and largely neglected Ottoman province was followed with curiosity and enthusiasm vastly disproportionate to its size. As Marinos Pourgouris notes, the occupation caused “an unparalleled frenzy” that was “more akin to fetish” (7). In The Cyprus Frenzy of 1878 and the British Press, Pourgouris dissects this tremendous explosion of public interest in Cyprus through an examination of representations of the island in the writings of the first British journalists who traveled there to cover the occupation. The British press, he argues, played a most significant role in sustaining the sensation that dominated public discourse by “reporting, constructing, propagating and eventually solidifying colonial perceptions of the island” (2). Previous work in Cypriot historiography—most notably by George Georgallides (1979) and Andrekos Varnava (2009)—has shown that British enthusiasm was misguided and ultimately short-lived. By the second decade of the twentieth century, the island was seen as “an inconsequential possession” rather than an imperial asset (Varnava 2009, 3). Pourgouris eschews the longue durée approach of earlier analyses, adopting instead what he calls a “microscopic gaze” (1) at a single historical moment: the first year of the British occupation. Perhaps more importantly, he views the British colonial apparatus not as a vast and impersonal bureaucratic machine, but rather as a small network of [End Page 230] politicians, military officers, and special correspondents linked to each other by close interpersonal relationships. Pourgouris draws parallels between these men and the “creole pioneers,” described by Benedict Anderson in his seminal Imagined Communities (1983), who possessed a “consciousness of connectedness” (Pourgouris, 2019, 21) even as they travelled around the world to take up positions as colonial administrators in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In Chapters 3 through 8, Pourgouris follows six special correspondents commissioned by major British newspapers to report on the arrival and settlement of the British administration and army on Cyprus in 1878. In these chapters, the author painstakingly pieces together the body of work pertaining to Cyprus of each of these six individuals (a daunting task, since the majority of their writing, he notes, was published anonymously). A close reading of their writings brings to light how their sympathies and antipathies, their friendships and affiliations with colonial administrators, military men, and other British travelers, refracted their experiences on the island and their opinions of the colonial project. These interpersonal relations, Pourgouris shows, exerted a remarkable influence on their views of topics as varied as the island’s climate, the nature of its inhabitants, the issue of slavery, and matters of law. A central node in the network of relationships, and a figure to which the narrative frequently returns, is Sir Garnet Wolseley, the first high commissioner of Cyprus (1878–1879). Sir Garnet, a highly decorated army man, is presented as a staunch pragmatist and cunning colonial administrator who demanded unwavering loyalty and discipline from his staff. In Cyprus, the backbone of the first British administration was formed by a select group of officers personally selected by the high commissioner. Pourgouris shows in Chapter 3 that, during his extensive military career, Sir Garnet developed a real distaste for journalists (he wrote a book about it), but also a keen awareness of the press as “ ‘a medium’ to achieve military objectives” (52). Throughout his short tenure as high commissioner, he took advantage of the affinity...

Ojibwe, Activist, Priest: The Life of Father Philip Bergin Gordon, Tibishkogijik by Tadeusz Lewandowski

Reviewed by: Ojibwe, Activist, Priest: The Life of Father Philip Bergin Gordon, Tibishkogijik by Tadeusz Lewandowski Brandon Dean Tadeusz Lewandowski, Ojibwe, Activist, Priest: The Life of Father Philip Bergin Gordon, Tibishkogijik. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2019. 200 pp. $28.95 (cloth). With Ojibwe, Activist, Priest, Tadeusz Lewandowski provides a concise, compelling biography of Philip Gordon, the first Indigenous person to be ordained as a Catholic priest in the United States. Lewandowski points out that, unlike his contemporaries among the “Red Progressives,” Gordon has received little attention from scholars. This is despite his prominent role in the Society of American Indians (SAI) and his determined opposition to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Lewandowski’s biography, however, illuminates the life and work of a complicated individual, whose careers as both a priest and a Native rights advocate speak to the larger issues facing Native Americans in the early twentieth century. At the heart of Gordon’s complexity was the apparent tension between his adoption of assimilationist beliefs that were steeped in early twentieth-century progressivism and his tireless advocacy for Native rights. A product of Indian boarding schools himself, Gordon was a true believer in the “civilizing mission” that sought to assimilate Native Americans into White culture through education and religious conversion. And yet, it was Gordon’s lifelong determined defense of Native people that earned him the moniker “Wisconsin’s Fighting Priest.” Avoiding the temptation to judge Gordon harshly for his assimilationist ideals or to dismiss his relevance, Lewandowski instead argues that Gordon’s zeal for religious reform drove him passionately in both directions at once, often much to the chagrin of friends and opponents alike. After briefly recounting the history of the Ojibwe people from earliest [End Page 181] European contacts through the nineteenth century, Lewandowski details Gordon’s family background and his early life as a promising young Catholic student. Following Gordon’s story chronologically, Lewandowski pays attention to two distinct narrative threads, which often converged at key moments. The first is Gordon’s ecclesiastical career. This work suffered a series of ups and downs but was most fulfilling when Gordon was able to minister directly to his fellow Native people. The second thread is Gordon’s involvement with the “Red Progressives,” particularly his participation in and influence on the SAI. Through that society, Gordon came into contact with influential Native progressives such as Carlos Montezuma, Charles Eastman, and Gertrude Bonnin. Gordon also published a short-lived but groundbreaking newsletter entitled War-Whoop, which was the precursor to Montezuma’s influential anti-BIA publication, Wassaja. Although Lewandowski covers Gordon’s entire life and career, the majority of his chapters focus on 1913–1924, a time when both Gordon’s influence and epistolary output were at their peak. Lewandowski’s final chapters briefly detail Gordon’s activities post-1924. In that period, he finally found a stable appointment as a beloved parish priest in Centuria, Wisconsin. He ministered there until his death in 1948. Where sources directly related to Gordon are thin, Lewandowski turns to more general events relevant to Native American experiences so as to highlight the context in which Gordon worked. In this way, Lewandowski’s biography of Gordon also becomes a window into the everyday struggles on Indian reservations in Wisconsin and Minnesota. These struggles were exacerbated by poverty, disease, and the unscrupulous actions of White loggers. Overall, Lewandowski’s biography offers a flattering account of Gordon, while also noting the often-disagreeable personality traits that made controversy and personal conflict his constant companions. One notable exception to Lewandowski’s favorable portrayal concerns the Ojibwe priest’s short tenure at the Haskell Institute in 1915. The abysmal conditions at this Lawrence, Kansas, facility represented everything that was wrong with the Indian boarding school system; and yet, Gordon seems to have overlooked the illness, death, and psychological toll of family separation and forced assimilation while ministering to the spiritual needs of the school’s Catholic students. Lewandowski is right to recognize this blind spot, given that Gordon’s judgment seems to have been consistently clouded by perceived rivalries with Protestant missionaries and ministers. On this particular point, Lewandowski knowingly invites a degree of controversy [End Page...

How has labour market power evolved? Comparing labour market monopsony in Peru and the United States

We document and compare the extent and evolution of labour market power by employers on the US and Peruvian labour markets during the 2010s. Making use of a structural estimation model of labour market dynamics, we estimate differences in market power that workers face depending on their sector of activity, their age and educational level. In particular, we show that differences in cross-sectional market power are significant and higher than variations over the ten-year time span of our data. In contrast to findings of labour market power in developed countries, we document significant market power of employers vis-a-vis the tertiary educated workforce, regardless of age and sector. In contrast, for the primary educated workforce, market power seems to be high in (private) services and manufacturing. For secondary educated workers, only the mining sector stands out as moderately more monopsonistic than the rest of the labour market. We also show that at least for the 2010s, the market power remained broadly stable in Peru. We contrast these findings with similar estimates obtained for the United States where we are able to show that it is mostly the less educated workforce that faces market power. Moreover, we show that for the US, the labour market power has gradually increased over the past ten years, in line with the general rise in inequality, but mostly for those with short labour market tenure. We also discuss possible reasons for these findings, including for the differences of labour market power across skill levels. Especially, we discuss the reasons for polarization of market power that are specific to specific skill levels and locations.

From dual to unified employment protection: Transition and steady state

Three features of real‐life reforms of dual employment protection legislation (EPL) systems are particularly hard to study through the lens of standard labor‐market search models: (i) the excess job turnover implied by dual EPL, (ii) the nonretroactive nature of EPL reforms, and (iii) the transition dynamics from dual to a unified EPL system. In this paper, we develop a computationally tractable model addressing these issues. Our main finding is that the welfare gains of reforming a dual EPL system are sizeable and achieved mostly through a decrease in turnover at short job tenures. This conclusion continues to hold in more general settings featuring wage rigidities, heterogeneity in productivity upon matching, and human capital accumulation. We also find substantial cross‐sectional heterogeneity in welfare effects along the transition to a unified EPL scheme. Given that the model is calibrated to data from Spain, often considered as the epitome of a labor market with dual EPL, our results should provide guidance for a wide range of reforms of dual EPL systems.

사외이사 활동성과 저축은행 연체대출비율: 대표이사, 사외이사 재직기간 및 수익성 Savings Banks’ Outside Director Activity and Loan Delinquency: CEO and Outside Director’s Tenures and Profitability

Korean Abstract:본고는 저축은행을 대상으로 사외이사의 활동성과 연체대출비율의 관계를 분석하였으며 추가 분석을 통해 저축은행의 대표이사 및 사외이사의 재직기간, 수익성이 사외이사 활동성과 연체대출비율의 관계에 미치는 영향을 살펴보았다. 분석결과, 사외이사 활동성과 저축은행의 연체대출비율은 유의한 역(-)의 관계가 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 이사회 참석을 통한 사외이사의 적극적 활동이 사외이사의 감시·정보획득 능력을 제고하기 때문으로 보인다. 또한 본고는 저축은행의 대표이사 및 사외이사의 재직기간이 짧을수록 부정적 효과가 연체대출비율에 나타날 수 있으나 사외이사의 적극적인 활동은 이러한 영향을 완화할 수 있음을 발견하였다. 반면, 저축은행 수익성과 관련하여 본고는 유의한 결과를 확인하지 못 하였다. 본 연구결과는 사외이사 활동성에 대한 연구가 미흡한 저축은행을 대상으로 사외이사의 활발한 활동이 저축은행의 연체대출비율에 긍정적 영향을 줄 수 있음을 보여주며, 대표이사 및 사외이사의 재직기간이 짧은 저축은행일수록 사외이사의 적극적인 활동을 유인할 필요가 있음을 시사한다. English Abstract:This paper studies how the activity of outside director effects on the loan delinquency of Korean savings banks. In addition, this study shows the effects of CEO and outside director’s tenures and savings banks’ profitability on the relation between the activity of outside director and loan delinquency. First, we find a negative relation between outside director activity and loan delinquency. The result implies that a high level of outside director’s activity can strengthen monitoring effects by alleviating information asymmetry and improving the ability of outside director and then reduce the loan delinquency. Second, it seems that the vigorous activity of outside director can alleviate the negative effects of CEO and outside director’s short tenures. However, the interaction term between the activity and low-profitability is insignificant. These results imply that savings banks might entice outside directors to attend the board of directors, especially if CEO and outside director have short tenures.

최고경영자 교체와 연구개발투자

This study empirically analyzed the impact of variables related to CEO turnover on R&D investment, such as CEO turnover rate, timing of turnover, and type of turnover. In addition, the study examined the impact of Chaebol governance on the relationship between CEO turnover and R&D investment. It was aimed at explaining the phenomenon of continuous R&D investment being made even during the relatively short term tenure of CEOs of Korean firms through the moderating effect of Chaebol governance. The empirical analysis results are as follows. First, the more frequent CEO changes were made, the less R&D investment was made. Second, an analysis of R&D investment before and after CEO turnover showed that R&D investment decreased significantly in the year of turnover and one year after the turnover of CEO. Third, the effect on R&D investment was different depending on the type of CEO turnover. Fourth, as a result of considering Chaebol governance structure at the same time, it was confirmed that Chaebol governance controled the inducement for reducing R&D investment due to the replacement of CEO of individual company. These results suggest that studies should simultaneously consider the effects of Chaebol governance, along with the characteristics of individual firms.

The Effect of Board Links, Audit Partner Tenure, and Related Party Transactions on Misstatements: Evidence from Chile

Companies restate when material misstatements are identified in previously issued financial statements. Misstatement research in Latin America is sparse, even though they are an important context to study this phenomenon. Chile’s corporate governance regulations are considered exemplars for Latin American countries but its auditing profession is not well developed. Thus, Chile provides an interesting context to study the complementary roles of audit and board governance affecting misstatements. Using a sample of 104 Chilean listed firms over seven years, our study finds that the board links and audit partner tenure negatively affect misstatements. Specifically, given the prevalence of related party transactions (RPTs) in conglomerates, the finding suggests that cross directors monitor high-value RPTs, but that this is not a substitute for auditor expertise. The findings raise questions about the advisability of mandating audit partner rotation to strengthen auditor independence because the results indicate that a short audit partner tenure leads to the auditor not developing client-specific knowledge. The study makes contributions to the corporate governance literature by highlighting that board monitoring is not a good substitute for auditor monitoring of financial reporting integrity, and suggesting the need for having licensing requirements to become an auditor.

Discussing the political survival of Romanian ministers since 1989—Do economic conditions matter?

AbstractPolitical longevity in young democracies has attracted the attention of scholars and practitioners alike due to several particular characteristics of such democracies, such as a low level of trust, a low level of credibility, corruption, economic difficulties, a less well‐established rule of law and an increased bureaucracy. In such a context, we studied the tenure duration of Romanian ministers since 1989, as well as their accumulated political longevity in ministerial offices. Using proportional hazards regression, we observed some peculiarities in the young Romanian democracy in comparison with more established regimes. We observed that left‐wing majorities tend to increase the probability of seat changes and thus diminish tenure longevity. We also observed that good economic conditions may lead to the substitution of certain types of ministries, while higher inflation rates tend to shorten tenure longevity for Romanian ministers. Moreover, our estimations support the finding that Romanian ministers tend to have shorter tenures as the number of past ministerial functions increases and that the burden of simultaneously managing various ministries significantly contributes to the shorter political longevity of a given minister. Finally, recent ministers have had longer tenures than those in the first years after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989.

Strategic decision-making in secondary schools: the impact of a principal’s demographic profile

ABSTRACT Purpose Building on arguments drawn from Upper Echelons Theory, this study provides insights into how certain demographic characteristics related to principals―gender, age, tenure, and formal education―may facilitate or hinder the adoption of three generic modes of strategic decision-making: autocratic, participative, and collaborative. Design Data were collected from a survey of Spanish secondary schools. The final sample consisted of 105 schools. The survey was administered to the principals at each school. A multinomial logistic regression was used to test the relationships between the study’s main variables of interest. Findings There is a positive relationship between principals aged 41–50, those with a tenure at the school equal to or less than 10 years and the likelihood of implementing a participative/collaborative mode of strategic decision-making. The lower the principal’s formal education, the lower the likelihood of adopting a collaborative mode. The effect of a principal’s gender is not statistically significant. The adoption of a participative/collaborative mode also depends on other school factors (such as, for example, a lower staff turnover or a higher teacher training). Practical implications The measures adopted by the Spanish educational authorities might make access to the position of principal easier for younger candidates and those with a shorter tenure at the school. They might also encourage those with Master’s degree and PhD studies. As there are no significant differences in the way male and female principals make strategic decisions, the educational authorities need “not act as if there really were.” Nevertheless, considering that women are still underrepresented in leadership positions in Spanish secondary schools, our findings could also be interpreted as a further call for the adoption of measures that promote greater parity. Originality To the best of our knowledge, there is still a lack of research exploring how certain demographic characteristics and other school factors may influence a principal’s adoption of different modes of strategic decision-making. This study may also clarify how school governance works. Over the past few years, scholars, experts, and policymakers from around the world have been calling for the need to adopt models that are more participative/collaborative regarding decision-making in schools. This study could, therefore, shed light on those factors that most contribute to achieving this aim in a country with high dropout and failure rates.

Earnings volatility and audit report lag

This study investigates whether earnings volatility influences audit report lag. If auditors view earnings volatility as affecting risk, and adjust effort in response to risk, we expect earnings volatility to impact audit report lag. Using a sample of 13,075 firm-year observations over the period 2004–2015, we find a negative relation between earnings volatility and audit report lag, consistent with auditors responding to less volatile earnings with increased effort. We also find that the association between earnings volatility and audit report lag is driven by non-industry-specialist auditors, auditors with short tenure, and small and medium sized auditor offices. Furthermore, we examine whether earnings management conducted by way of earnings smoothing affects our results. We find that low earnings volatility has a stronger impact on increasing audit report lag when there is a high degree of earnings smoothing

The Impact of Career Development, Work-Family Conflict, and Job Satisfaction on Millennials’ Turnover Intention in Banking Industry

With a strong domination of the Millennials generation in the workforce, they become one of the key holders in the success of the organisation and the economy. Their behaviour of working short tenure and job-hop worries many organisations as this halt the organisations’ growth, performance and productivity while also incurring extra costs. Banking sector is known to have a high turnover rate and has been lacking in the number of talents which delays their implementation on key strategic initiatives. It becomes important to study the factor influencing the Millennials turnover rate. This study aims to measure the influence of Career Development (CD), Work-family Conflict (WFC), and Job Satisfaction (JS) on Millennials Turnover Intention (TI) in Indonesia’s banking industry. A quantitative research is conducted among Indonesia's Millennials banking employees and data were analysed using PLS-SEM. The result shows that Work-family Conflict has a significant positive direct impact on Turnover Intention. Job Satisfaction is also observed to have a significant negative direct impact towards Turnover Intention. Interestingly, Career Development has no direct significant impact on Turnover Intention unless it is mediated by Job Satisfaction. However, Work-family Conflict has no effect on Turnover Intention if it is mediated by Job Satisfaction. Additionally, this research provides academic and practical implications on how to manage these Millennials to reduce Turnover Intention in the banking industry which could lead to an actual turnover.

In the mood to consume: Effect of sunshine on credit card spending

Using a large, representative sample of high-frequency credit card transactions in the United States, this paper examines the causal effect of sunshine-induced mood on contemporaneous household credit card spending. We document a 0.3 percent increase in credit card spending in response to a one-unit increase in the same-day local abnormal sunshine. The spending response is stronger for consumers with higher credit card debt, lower FICO score, and shorter tenure with the bank. The effect manifests in long-term, durable goods spending, and is not driven by other weather conditions, complementarity between sunshine and consumption, or intentional choice of consumption time. We document similar responses of spending on seasonal and non-seasonal goods and during times with high and low sunshine levels. Finally, the sunshine effect occurs among consumers with various characteristics.

Hiring retirement‐age CEOs

AbstractMore than 10% of the S&P 1500 companies have hired a CEO who starts the job near or above the conventional retirement age of 65 years old. This phenomenon exists among all industries and persists over time. Firms are more likely to hire retiring CEOs when the CEO job risk is high and when the firm is in distress. Retiring CEOs receive lower total compensation, the compensation structure puts a higher weight on nonequity‐based compensation, and have a shorter tenure. Retiring CEOs can be beneficial to shareholders when they are hired for the right purpose.

Determinants of Audit Quality: Evidence from Nigerian Listed Insurance Companies

The study examines the factors that determine audit quality among listed insurance companies in Nigeria. The study adopts Ex-post facto research design, and 15 companies are purposively selected, out of 25 listed insurance companies in Nigeria as of 2018. Panel data is extracted from the annual account and reports of the selected companies over a period of ten years (2009–2018). Pearson correlation analysis, Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Regression are the statistical tools used for the analysis. The results of the study reveal a significant relationship between the audit firm size, audit tenure, audit fee, cash flow and audit quality (p < 0.05). However, there is no significant relationship between auditors independence, joint audit and audit quality (p > 0.05). The study concludes that audit fees, audit firm size, audit tenure and cash flow from operations are major determinants of audit quality as each of them has significantly contributed to audit quality of listed insurance companies in Nigeria. Therefore, the Nigerian listed insurance companies should place a high premium on audit firm size, audit fees, and short term audit tenure when engaging services of an audit firm.