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Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 46 2017

Do managerial risk-taking incentives influence firms' exchange rate exposure?

Bill B. Francis1; Iftekhar Hasan2,3,4; Delroy M. Hunter5; Yun Zhu6

1 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute · 2 Bank of Finland · 3 Fordham University · 4 University Bank · 5 University of South Florida · 6 St. John's University

Abstract

There is scant evidence on how risk-taking incentives impact specific firm risks. This has implications for board oversight of managerial risk taking, firms' development of comparative advantage in taking particular risks, and compensation design. We examine this question for exchange rate risk. Using multiple identification strategies, we find that vega increases exchange rate exposure for purely domestic and globally engaged firms. Vega's impact increases with international operations, declines post-SOX, and is robust to firm-level governance. Our results suggest that evidence that exposure reduces firm value can be viewed, in part, as a wealth transfer from shareholders and debt-holders to managers.

DOI
10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.06.015
Volume
46
Pages
154-169
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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