Do CEO risk-reducing incentives affect operating leverage? Evidence from CEO inside debt holdings

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Publicado en:Meditari Accountancy Research vol. 32, no. 3 (2024), p. 693-720
Autor Principal: Gurmeet Singh Bhabra
Outros autores: Hossain, Ashrafee Tanvir
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Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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022 |a 2049-372X 
022 |a 2049-3738 
024 7 |a 10.1108/MEDAR-07-2022-1740  |2 doi 
035 |a 3046602326 
045 2 |b d20240701  |b d20240930 
084 |a 173633  |2 nlm 
100 1 |a Gurmeet Singh Bhabra  |u Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Griffith University, Nathan, Australia 
245 1 |a Do CEO risk-reducing incentives affect operating leverage? Evidence from CEO inside debt holdings 
260 |b Emerald Group Publishing Limited  |c 2024 
513 |a Journal Article 
520 3 |a PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between CEOs' inside debt holdings (pension benefits and deferred compensation) and the operating leverage of the firms they manage, with the aim to examine whether CEO incentives play a role in corporate risk-taking.Design/methodology/approachThe authors investigate the relation between CEO inside debt holdings (CIDH) (pension benefits and deferred compensation) and the operating leverage (DOL) of the firms they manage. Using a sample of 11,145 US firm-year observations over the period 2006–2017, the authors find a strong negative association between CIDH and DOL. Additional analyses reveal that the relationship between CIDH and DOL is more pronounced in firms with heightened agency issues, powerful CEOs and for CEOs with stronger professional networks. The results are robust to various sensitivity and endogeneity tests.FindingsThe authors find strong evidence confirming the expected negative association between CEO inside debt and DOL suggesting that firms with higher inside debt tend to maintain lower levels of operating leverage. These findings continue to hold with the alternative measure for the inside debt and operating leverage, and across a range of tests designed to rule out the possibility that the primary findings are in any way driven by potential endogeneity. In addition, the findings demonstrate that the presence of manager-shareholder agency conflicts can strengthen the inside debt–DOL relationship suggesting the strong role of inside debt in reducing firm risk.Research limitations/implicationsFindings in this paper have implications for design of compensation structures so that corporate boards can establish incentives as a tool for risk management. A limitation of this study is that it is focused on one market, i.e. US listed companies, so the findings may not be applicable on a global scale.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that links firm-level management of operating leverage through design of CEO inside debt incentives (two obvious choices for risk-reduction at the CEOs’ disposal include reducing financial risk through reduction of firm leverage and reducing operating risk through reduction of operating leverage). While use of firm leverage as an instrument of choice has been explored in the past, use of operating leverage to achieve risk reduction when CEO possess high inside holding, has received very little attention. 
653 |a Investments 
653 |a Costs 
653 |a Operating leverage 
653 |a Equity 
653 |a Debt financing 
653 |a Volatility 
653 |a Incentives 
653 |a Deferred compensation 
653 |a Chief executive officers 
653 |a Risk management 
653 |a Executive compensation 
653 |a Compensation 
653 |a Economic crisis 
653 |a International finance 
700 1 |a Hossain, Ashrafee Tanvir  |u Faculty of Business Administration, University of Newfoundland, Saint John's, Canada 
773 0 |t Meditari Accountancy Research  |g vol. 32, no. 3 (2024), p. 693-720 
786 0 |d ProQuest  |t ABI/INFORM Global 
856 4 1 |3 Citation/Abstract  |u https://www.proquest.com/docview/3046602326/abstract/embedded/7BTGNMKEMPT1V9Z2?source=fedsrch 
856 4 0 |3 Full Text  |u https://www.proquest.com/docview/3046602326/fulltext/embedded/7BTGNMKEMPT1V9Z2?source=fedsrch 
856 4 0 |3 Full Text - PDF  |u https://www.proquest.com/docview/3046602326/fulltextPDF/embedded/7BTGNMKEMPT1V9Z2?source=fedsrch