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Stanford Closer Look Series

The Stanford Closer Look series is a collection of short studies through which we explore topics, issues, and controversies in corporate governance. In each study, we take a targeted look at a specific issue and explain why it is important.

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Stanford Closer Look|

Environmental Spinoffs: The Attempt to Dump Liability Through Spin and Bankruptcy

Andrew C. Baker, David F. Larcker, Brian Tayan
Stanford Closer Look Series. Corporate Governance Research Initiative, November
2020

Environmental costs are a legal obligation of companies and proper corporate governance requires that they be dealt with responsibly. Unfortunately, disturbing examples exist where companies have taken aggressive action to...

Stanford Closer Look|

Sharing the Pain: How Did Boards Adjust CEO Pay in Response to COVID-19?

Amit Batish, Andrew Gordon, David F. Larcker, Brian Tayan, Edward M. Watts, Courtney Yu
Stanford Closer Look Series. Corporate Governance Research Initiative, September
2020

Scrutiny of CEO pay increases during times of economic stress, when it is not clear how much pay CEOs should receive when corporate profitability suffers due to an unforeseen decline...

Stanford Closer Look|

Blindsided by Social Risk: How Do Companies Survive a Storm of Their Own Making?

David F. Larcker, Brian Tayan
Stanford Closer Look Series. Corporate Governance Research Initiative, July
2020

Our concept of risk continues to broaden and now includes instances in which representatives of a company make statements, actions, or decisions that damage the firm by inviting public scrutiny,...

Stanford Closer Look|

The Spread of COVID-19 Disclosure

David F. Larcker, Bradford Lynch, Brian Tayan, Daniel J. Taylor
Stanford Closer Look Series. Corporate Governance Research Initiative, June
2020

Investors rely on corporate disclosure to make informed decisions about the value of companies they invest in. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to examine disclosure practices of companies...

Stanford Closer Look|

Diversity in the C-Suite

David F. Larcker, Brian Tayan
Stanford Closer Look Series. Corporate Governance Research Initiative, April
2020

There has been a broad push in recent years to increase diversity at the board and CEO levels of public corporations. Despite this effort, diversity on boards and in senior...

Stanford Closer Look|

The First Outside Director

David F. Larcker, Brian Tayan
Stanford Closer Look Series. Corporate Governance Research Initiative, April
2020

Little is known about the process by which pre-IPO companies select independent, outside board members — directors unaffiliated with the company or its investors. Private companies are not required to...

Stanford Closer Look|

Governance of Corporate Insider Equity Trades

John D. Kepler, David F. Larcker, Brian Tayan, Daniel J. Taylor
Stanford Closer Look Series. Corporate Governance Research Initiative, January
2020

Corporate executives receive a considerable portion of their compensation in the form of equity and, from time to time, sell a portion of their holdings in the open market. Executives...

Stanford Closer Look|

Pay for Performance … But Not Too Much Pay: The American Public’s View of CEO Pay

David F. Larcker, Brian Tayan
Stanford Closer Look Series. Corporate Governance Research Initiative, November
2019

Among the controversies in corporate governance, perhaps none is more heated or widely debated across society than that of CEO pay. The views that American citizens have on CEO pay...

Stanford Closer Look|

Loosey-Goosey Governance

David F. Larcker, Brian Tayan
Stanford Closer Look Series. Corporate Governance Research Initiative, October
2019

A reliable system of corporate governance is considered to be an important requirement for the long-term success of a company. Unfortunately, after decades of research, we still do not have...

Stanford Closer Look|

Stakeholders and Shareholders: Are Executives Really “Penny Wise and Pound Foolish” About ESG?

David F. Larcker, Brian Tayan, Vinay Trivedi, Owen Wurzbacher
Stanford Closer Look Series. Corporate Governance Research Initiative, July
2019

Currently, there is much debate about the role that non-investor stakeholder interests play in the governance of public companies. Critics argue that greater attention should be paid to the interest...

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