Time/时间：2021/05/06 – 10:00-11:30 am (Beijing Time)
Venue/地点：Room 501, Jiageng Building 2/嘉庚二号楼501教室
Topic/题目： Societal Trust and Corporate Risk-Taking: International Evidence
Speaker/报告人：Dr. Shan Li and Joseph Sowahfio Sowah
Facilitator/主持人：Dr. Shan Li
Abstract/摘要:Prior findings on the effect of societal trust on corporate risk-taking are mixed owning to industry-specific context taken by these earlier studies. To extend and provide a somewhat “general” effect of societal trust on corporate risk-taking, this study uses a comprehensive data set of more than 50,000 firms from all industries in the market economy covering 55 countries from 1996 to 2014. We document a statistically significant and negative relation between corporate risk-taking and societal trust. The negative relationship is stronger for firms: in countries with weaker formal institutions, in industries with a high diversification, and with greater managerial discretion. In sum, our findings are consistent with the literature, which emphasizes the importance of informal institutions as mechanisms for monitoring and shaping corporate behavior.
About the Speaker/报告人简介：
Joseph Sowahfio Sowah is a second-year Ph.D. (Finance) student at the Institute for Financial and Accounting Studies (IFAS) of Xiamen University. His research interests are empirical corporate finance, behavioral finance, and corporate governance.
Shan Li is Assistant Professor of Finance at the IFAS of XMU. She has published in the Journal of Corporate Finance and Accounting & Finance etc. Her research interests include cross-listing and corporate governance.