← Search

Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 12 No. 4 2006

Corporate performance and CEO compensation in China

Michael Firth1; Peter M.Y. Fung2; Oliver M. Rui3

1 Hong Kong Polytechnic University · 2 Hong Kong College of Technology · 3 Chinese University of Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper examines the compensation of CEOs in China's listed firms. First, we discuss what is known about the setting of CEO compensation and then we go on to examine factors that may help explain variations in the use of performance related pay. In China, listed firms have a dominant or controlling shareholder and we argue that the distinct types of controlling shareholder have different impacts on the use of incentive pay. We find that firms that have a State agency as the major shareholder do not appear to use performance related pay. In contrast, firms that have private blockholders or SOEs as their major shareholders relate the CEO's pay to increases in stockholders' wealth or increases in profitability. However the pay–performance sensitivities for CEOs are low and this raises questions about the effectiveness of firms' incentive systems.

DOI
10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2005.03.002
Volume
12
Issue
4
Pages
693-714
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite