Showing papers on "Corporate governance published in 2019"
TL;DR: The increased amount of health care data collected brings with it ethical and legal challenges for protecting the patient while optimizing health care and research, and possible ways forward for the regulatory system are sketched.
Abstract: Big data has become the ubiquitous watch word of medical innovation. The rapid development of machine-learning techniques and artificial intelligence in particular has promised to revolutionize medical practice from the allocation of resources to the diagnosis of complex diseases. But with big data comes big risks and challenges, among them significant questions about patient privacy. Here, we outline the legal and ethical challenges big data brings to patient privacy. We discuss, among other topics, how best to conceive of health privacy; the importance of equity, consent, and patient governance in data collection; discrimination in data uses; and how to handle data breaches. We close by sketching possible ways forward for the regulatory system.
475 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of sustainability disclosure regulations on firms' disclosure practices and valuations was examined, and the authors found that the increased likelihood by treated firms of voluntarily receiving assurance to enhance disclosure credibility and increased likelihood of voluntarily adopting reporting guidelines that enhance disclosure comparability.
Abstract: A key aspect of the governance process inside organizations and markets is the measurement and disclosure of important metrics and information. In this chapter, we examine the effect of sustainability disclosure regulations on firms’ disclosure practices and valuations. Specifically, we explore the implications of regulations mandating the disclosure of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information in China, Denmark, Malaysia, and South Africa using differences-in-differences estimation with propensity score matched samples. We find that relative to propensity score matched control firms, treated firms significantly increased disclosure following the regulations. We also find increased likelihood by treated firms of voluntarily receiving assurance to enhance disclosure credibility and increased likelihood of voluntarily adopting reporting guidelines that enhance disclosure comparability. These results suggest that even in the absence of a regulation that mandates the adoption of assurance or specific guidelines, firms seek the qualitative properties of comparability and credibility. Instrumental variables analysis suggests that increases in sustainability disclosure driven by the regulation are associated with increases in firm valuations, as reflected in Tobin’s Q. Collectively, the evidence suggest that current efforts to increase transparency around organizations’ impact on society are effective at improving disclosure quantity and quality as well as corporate value.
396 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop a theoretical model of a polycentric governance system with a focus on the features necessary or conducive for achieving the functioning predicted by commons scholars, which is comprised of attributes, which constitute the definitional elements, and enabling conditions, which specify additional institutional features for achieving functionality in the commons.
Abstract: Polycentricity is a fundamental concept in commons scholarship that connotes a complex form of governance with multiple centers of semiautonomous decision making. If the decision-making centers take each other into account in competitive and cooperative relationships and have recourse to conflict resolution mechanisms, they may be regarded as a polycentric governance system. In the context of natural resource governance, commons scholars have ascribed a number of advantages to polycentric governance systems, most notably enhanced adaptive capacity, provision of good institutional fit for natural resource systems, and mitigation of risk on account of redundant governance actors and institutions. Despite the popularity of the concept, systematic development of polycentricity, including its posited advantages, is lacking in the commons literature. To build greater clarity and specificity around the concept, we develop a theoretical model of a polycentric governance system with a focus on the features necessary or conducive for achieving the functioning predicted by commons scholars. The model is comprised of attributes, which constitute the definitional elements, and enabling conditions, which specify additional institutional features for achieving functionality in the commons. The model we propose takes the concept a step further toward specificity without sacrificing the generality necessary for contextual application and further development.
310 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the relationship between corporate efficiency and corporate sustainability to determine whether firms concerned about environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues can also be efficient and profitable.
Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between corporate efficiency and corporate sustainability to determine whether firms concerned about environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues can also be efficient and profitable. We applied data envelopment analysis to estimate corporate efficiency and investigated the nonlinear relationship between corporate efficiency and ESG disclosure. Evidence shows that corporate transparency regarding ESG information has a positive association with corporate efficiency at the moderate disclosure level, rather than at the high or low disclosure level. Governance information disclosure has the strongest positive linkage with corporate efficiency, followed by social and environmental information disclosure. Moreover, we explored the relationship between particular ESG activities and corporate financial performance (CFP), including corporate efficiency, return on assets and market value. We found that most of the ESG activities reveal a non-negative relationship with CFP. These findings may provide evidence about voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy choices for enhancing corporate sustainability.
269 citations
TL;DR: Following a host of high-profile scandals, the political influence of platform companies (the global corporations that operate online 'platforms' such as Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and many...
Abstract: Following a host of high-profile scandals, the political influence of platform companies (the global corporations that that operate online ‘platforms’ such as Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and many ...
263 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors empirically analyzed whether the composition of the board of directors affects firms' sustainability performance and found that firms with more diversity on the board and a separation between chair and CEO roles showed higher sustainability performance.
257 citations
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors investigated the extent to which corporate board gender diversity, including the proportion, age and level of education of female directors, affect environmental performance of Chinese publicly listed corporations.
Abstract: This paper seeks to contribute to the existing business strategy and the environment literature by examining the effect of governance structures on environmental performance within a unique context of improving environmental governance, policies, regulations and management. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which corporate board gender diversity, including the proportion, age and level of education of female directors, affect environmental performance of Chinese publicly listed corporations. Using one of the largest Chinese data sets to date, consisting of a sample of 383 listed A-shares from 2011 to 2015 (i.e., observations of 1,674), our findings are three-fold. First, we find that the proportion and age of female directors have a positive effect on the overall corporate environmental performance. Second, our findings indicate that the proportion and age of female directors also have a positive effect on the three individual environmental performance components, namely environmental (a) strategy, (b) implementation and (c) disclosure, respectively. Finally, and by contrast, we do not find any evidence that suggests that the level of education of female directors has any impact on environmental performance, neither the overall environmental performance measure nor its individual components. Our findings have important implication for regulators and policy-makers. Our evidence is robust to controlling for alternative measures, other governance and firm-level control variables, and possible endogeneities. We interpret our findings within a multi-theoretical framework that draws insights from agency, legitimacy, neo-institutional, resource dependence, stakeholder, and tokenism theoretical perspectives.
251 citations
18 Feb 2019
TL;DR: A summary of the origins and evolution of the GBD over the past 25 years is presented, and two illustrative examples of estimates are analyzed and the ways in which they gloss over the assumptions and knowledge gaps in their production are analyzed.
Abstract: The global burden of disease study—which has been affiliated with the World Bank and the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is now housed in the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)—has become a very important tool to global health governance since it was first published in the 1993 World Development Report. In this article, based on literature review of primary and secondary sources as well as field notes from public events, we present first a summary of the origins and evolution of the GBD over the past 25 years. We then analyse two illustrative examples of estimates and the ways in which they gloss over the assumptions and knowledge gaps in their production, highlighting the importance of historical context by country and by disease in the quality of health data. Finally, we delve into the question of the end users of these estimates and the tensions that lie at the heart of producing estimates of local, national, and global burdens of disease. These tensions bring to light the different institutional ethics and motivations of IHME, WHO, and the World Bank, and they draw our attention to the importance of estimate methodologies in representing problems and their solutions in global health. With the rise in the investment in and the power of global health estimates, the question of representing global health problems becomes ever more entangled in decisions made about how to adjust reported numbers and to evolving statistical science. Ultimately, more work needs to be done to create evidence that is relevant and meaningful on country and district levels, which means shifting resources and support for quantitative—and qualitative—data production, analysis, and synthesis to countries that are the targeted beneficiaries of such global health estimates.
211 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors extended the sample period through 2016 to provide a powerful out-of-sample test of the specification and power of director stock ownership as a measure of corporate governance.
206 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that SSF are being subtly and overtly squeezed for geographic, political and economic space by larger scale economic and environmental conservation interests, jeopardizing the substantial benefits SSF provide through the livelihoods of millions of women and men, for the food security of around four billion consumers globally, and in the developing world, as a key source of micronutrients and protein for over a billion low-income consumers.
Abstract: The vast developmental opportunities offered by the world's coasts and oceans have attracted the attention of governments, private enterprises, philanthropic organizations, and international conservation organizations. High-profile dialogue and policy decisions on the future of the ocean are informed largely by economic and ecological research. Key insights from the social sciences raise concerns for food and nutrition security, livelihoods and social justice, but these have yet to gain traction with investors and the policy discourse on transforming ocean governance. The largest group of ocean-users - women and men who service, fish and trade from small-scale fisheries (SSF) - argue that they have been marginalized from the dialogue between international environmental and economic actors that is determining strategies for the future of the ocean. Blue Economy or Blue Growth initiatives see the ocean as the new economic frontier and imply an alignment with social objectives and SSF concerns. Deeper analysis reveals fundamental differences in ideologies, priorities and approaches. We argue that SSF are being subtly and overtly squeezed for geographic, political and economic space by larger scale economic and environmental conservation interests, jeopardizing the substantial benefits SSF provide through the livelihoods of millions of women and men, for the food security of around four billion consumers globally, and in the developing world, as a key source of micro-nutrients and protein for over a billion low-income consumers. Here, we bring insights from social science and SSF to explore how ocean governance might better account for social dimensions of fisheries.
203 citations
TL;DR: This paper found that more concentrated ownership, often in the hands of families, led to firms performing better; concentrated ownership means that controlling families bear more of the risks of poor performance, and mechanisms that accord room for a greater range of voices and interests within and beyond families seem to also make for positive performance effects.
TL;DR: In this paper, the smart city continues to struggle for definitional clarity and practical import, and the authors investigate the smart cities as global discourse and argue that smart cities need to be defined and defined clearly.
Abstract: Despite its growing ubiquitous presence, the smart city continues to struggle for definitional clarity and practical import. In response, this study interrogates the smart city as global discourse ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the effect of agency risk on innovation and investigated how it is influenced by corporate and public governance in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and found that improved corporate governance tools, including better alignment of agents' private incentives and stronger monitoring, and high-quality public governance reduce such agency risk in state owned enterprises.
Abstract: Innovation activities create substantial firm value, but they are difficult to manage owing to agency risk which is commonly thought to result in shirking, hence underinvestment in innovation. However, agency risk can also create inefficient allocation of resources among innovation activities, on which the literature provided limited understanding. We examine an important outcome created by agency risk—that agents pursue the quantity of innovation at the expense of the novelty, and investigate how it is influenced by corporate and public governance. We theorize that improved corporate governance tools, including better alignment of agents’ private incentives and stronger monitoring, and high-quality public governance reduce such agency risk in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Furthermore, higher-quality public governance enhances the functioning of corporate governance tools in further reducing such agency risk in innovation. We test our theory in the context of Chinese SOEs that responded to state’s pro-i...
Book•
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: The Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) handbook as mentioned in this paper assembles in one place the existing research-based knowledge in education finance and policy, thereby helping to define this evolving field of research and practice.
Abstract: Sponsored by the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP), this groundbreaking new handbook assembles in one place the existing researchbased knowledge in education finance and policy, thereby helping to define this evolving field of research and practice. It provides a readily available resource for anyone seriously involved in education finance and policy in the United States and around the world.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed an innovative theoretical framework that combines institutional and policy network approaches to study multi-level governance, and derived a number of propositions on how cross-level power imbalances shape communication and collaboration across multiple levels of governance.
Abstract: This article proposes an innovative theoretical framework that combines institutional and policy network approaches to study multi-level governance. The framework is used to derive a number of propositions on how cross-level power imbalances shape communication and collaboration across multiple levels of governance. The framework is then applied to examine the nature of cross-level interactions in climate change mitigation and adaptation policy processes in the land use sectors of Brazil and Indonesia. The paper identifies major barriers to cross-level communication and collaboration between national and sub-national levels. These are due to power imbalances across governance levels that reflect broader institutional differences between federal and decentralized systems of government. In addition, powerful communities operating predominantly at the national level hamper cross-level interactions. The analysis also reveals that engagement of national level actors is more extensive in the mitigation and that of local actors in the adaptation policy domain, and specialisation in one of the climate change responses at the national level hampers effective climate policy integration in the land use sector.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relationship between ESG and bank's operational (Return on Assets), financial (return on Equity) and market performance (Tobin's Q) and found that there is significant positive impact of ESG on the performance.
Abstract: Sustainability reporting has been widely adopted by firms worldwide given the need of stakeholders for more transparency on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between ESG and bank’s operational (Return on Assets), financial (Return on Equity) and market performance (Tobin’s Q).,This study examined 235 banks for ten years (2007-2016) to ends up with 2,350 observations. The independent variable is the ESG disclosure; the dependent variables are performance indicators (return on assets, return on equity and Tobin’s Q). Two type of control variables are utilized in this study: bank specific and macroeconomic.,The findings deduced from the empirical results demonstrate that there is significant positive impact of ESG on the performance. However, the relationship between ESG disclosures is vary if measured individually; the environmental disclosure found positively affect the ROA and TQ. Whereas, the corporate social responsibility disclosure is negatively affect the three models. However, the corporate governance disclosure found negatively affects the ROA, ROE and positively affects the Tobin’s Q.,The results of this study can be used to present a successful model for worldwide banks to concentrate on the role of ESG disclosure in performance.
TL;DR: In this paper, the integration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) criteria in executive compensation, a relatively recent practice in corporate governance, was examined, and the authors found that CSR contracting helps direct management's attention to stakeholders that are less salient but financially material to the firm in the long run, thereby enhancing corporate governance.
Abstract: Research Summary This study examines the integration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) criteria in executive compensation, a relatively recent practice in corporate governance. We construct a novel database of CSR contracting and document that CSR contracting has become more prevalent over time. We further find that the adoption of CSR contracting leads to (a) an increase in long‐term orientation; (b) an increase in firm value; (c) an increase in social and environmental initiatives; (d) a reduction in emissions; and (e) an increase in green innovations. These findings are consistent with our theoretical arguments predicting that CSR contracting helps direct management's attention to stakeholders that are less salient but financially material to the firm in the long run, thereby enhancing corporate governance. Managerial Summary This paper examines the effectiveness and implications of integrating environmental and social performance criteria in executive compensation (CSR contracting)—a recent practice in corporate governance that is becoming more and more prevalent. We show that CSR contracting mitigates corporate short‐termism and improves business performance. Firms that adopt CSR contracting experience a significant increase in firm value, which foreshadows an increase in long‐term operating profits. Furthermore, firms that adopt CSR contracting improve their environmental and social performance, especially with respect to the environment and local communities. Overall, our findings suggest that CSR contracting directs management's attention to stakeholders that are less salient but financially material to the firm in the long run, thereby improving a firm's governance and its impact on society and the natural environment.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw together diverse social science perspectives and research into a variety of cases to show how different types of power shape rule setting, issue construction, and policy implementation in polycentric governance.
Abstract: Failure to address unsustainable global change is often attributed to failures in conventional environmental governance. Polycentric environmental governance—the popular alternative—involves many centres of authority interacting coherently for a common governance goal. Yet, longitudinal analysis reveals many polycentric systems are struggling to cope with the growing impacts, pace, and scope of social and environmental change. Analytic shortcomings are also beginning to appear, particularly in the treatment of power. Here we draw together diverse social science perspectives and research into a variety of cases to show how different types of power shape rule setting, issue construction, and policy implementation in polycentric governance. We delineate an important and emerging research agenda for polycentric environmental governance, integrating diverse types of power into analytical and practical models.
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors examined the effects of corporate governance mechanisms on firm performance in a newly industrialised country, Taiwan, using a sample of Taiwanese listed firms from 1997 to 2015, and used a panel estimation to exploit both the cross-section and time series nature of the data.
Abstract: Using a data set of listed firms domiciled in Taiwan, this paper aims to empirically assess the effects of ownership structure and board of directors on firm value.,Using a sample of Taiwanese listed firms from 1997 to 2015, this study uses a panel estimation to exploit both the cross-section and time–series nature of the data. Furthermore, two stage least squares (2SLS) regression model is used as robustness test to mitigate the endogeneity issue.,The main results show that the higher the proportion of independent directors, the smaller the board size, together with a two-tier board system and no chief executive officer duality, the stronger the firm’s performance. With respect to ownership structure, block-holders’ ownership, institutional ownership, foreign ownership and family ownership are all positively related to firm value.,Although the Taiwanese corporate governance reform concerning the independent director system which is mandatory only for newly-listed companies is successful, the regulatory authority should require all listed companies to appoint independent directors to further enhance the Taiwanese corporate governance.,First, unlike most of the previous literature on Western developed countries, this study examines the effects of corporate governance mechanisms on firm performance in a newly industrialised country, Taiwan. Second, while a number of studies used a single indicator of firm performance, this study examines both accounting-based and market-based firm performance. Third, this study addresses the endogeneity issue between corporate governance factors and firm performance by using 2SLS estimation, and details the econometric tests for justifying the appropriateness of using 2SLS estimation.
TL;DR: Findings reveal that ‘Governance’ is documented as the most significant category of barriers for smart city development followed by ‘Economic;’ ‘Technology’; ‘Social’, ‘Environmental’ and ‘Legal and Ethical’.
Abstract: Smart city development is gaining considerable recognition in the systematic literature and international policies throughout the world. The study aims to identify the key barriers of smart cities from a review of existing literature and views of experts in this area. This work further makes an attempt on the prioritisation of barriers to recognise the most important barrier category and ranking of specific barriers within the categories to the development of smart cities in India. Through the existing literature, this work explored 31 barriers of smart cities development and divided them into six categories. This research work employed fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique to prioritise the selected barriers. Findings reveal that ‘Governance’ is documented as the most significant category of barriers for smart city development followed by ‘Economic; ‘Technology’; ‘Social’; ‘Environmental’ and ‘Legal and Ethical’. In this work, authors also performed sensitivity analysis to validate the findings of study. This research is useful to the government and policymakers for eradicating the potential interferences in smart city development initiatives in developing countries like India.
TL;DR: This work presents findings from semi-structured interviews with 56 volunteer moderators of online communities across three platforms, from which a generalized model is derived categorizing the ways moderators engage with their communities and explaining how these communities develop as a result.
Abstract: Online communities provide a forum for rich social interaction and identity development for billions of Internet users worldwide. In order to manage these communities, platform owners have increasi...
TL;DR: In this paper, a meta-analysis of evidence about the influence of the corporate governance on environmental, social, and governance disclosure, in a setting where the disclosure of information is voluntary but not discretionary, is presented.
Abstract: This paper provides, to the best of the authors' knowledge, the first meta‐analysis of evidence about the influence of the corporate governance on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure, in a setting where the disclosure of information is voluntary but not discretionary. We apply meta‐analysis to a sample of 24 empirical studies to clarify the relationship of board size, board independence, women on board, number of board meeting, CEO duality, and company ownership with ESG disclosure. Our results show that board independence, board size, and women directorship visibly enhance ESG voluntary disclosure; board ownership and CEO duality do not improve the level of ESG disclosure; and some hesitations remain in respect of the number of board meetings and institutional and family ownership. The paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the corporate governance mechanisms that lead to more ESG disclosure and highlight the need of new approach on these issues.
TL;DR: A conceptual framework for data governance is developed and an overview of antecedents, scoping parameters, and governance mechanisms are provided to assist practitioners in approaching data governance in a structured manner.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the extent and the determinants of the stock market's reaction following ordinary news related to environmental, social and governance issues, and find that firms facing negative events experience a drop in their market value of 0.1%, whereas companies gain nothing on average from positive announcements.
Abstract: Stories about corporate social responsibility have become very frequent over the past decade, and managers can no longer ignore their impact on firm value. In this paper, we investigate the extent and the determinants of the stock market’s reaction following ordinary news related to environmental, social and governance issues—the so-called ESG factors. To that purpose, we use an original database provided by Covalence EthicalQuote. Our empirical analysis is based on about 33,000 ESG news (positive or negative), targeting one hundred listed companies over the period 2002–2010. On average, firms facing negative events experience a drop in their market value of 0.1%, whereas companies gain nothing on average from positive announcements. We find also that market participants are responsive to the media, but they do not react to firms’ press releases or to NGOs’ disclosures. Moreover, our results indicate that sector’s reputation mitigates the loss (the goodwill hypothesis) and that cultural proximity and lexical contents of ESG disclosures play a significant role in the magnitude of the impact.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose critical dialogic accountability as a way to conceptualize accountability systems in a pluralistic society characterized by multiple, and often conflicting, interests, and present a definition of accountability that illustrates its complexity, recognizes the salience of power for accountability relationships and can be applied both descriptively and normatively, providing a framework for assisting in the specification of the accountability systems and responsibility networks of various interest groups.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that selling quality products in global niches allows family-managed SMEs to internationalize without the cosmopolitan managers and the high financial investments required for selling mass-market products abroad; at the same time, a global niche business model requires the long time horizon and a high level of social capital that family governance can provide.
Abstract: The prevalent view among family-firm internationalization scholars is that family management discourages internationalization. This is because selling abroad is said to require more specialized managers and more resources than selling at home, and yet family firms are unwilling to recruit non-family managers with the required international skills and to dilute their control to obtain the necessary finance. We hypothesize that this argument overlooks the possibility that managers of family-managed SMEs choose business models that both minimize the above-mentioned limitations and leverage the strengths of family governance. Specifically, we argue that selling quality products in global niches allows family-managed SMEs to internationalize without the cosmopolitan managers and the high financial investments required for selling mass-market products abroad; at the same time a global niche business model requires the long time horizon and the high level of social capital that family governance can provide. Modeling a firm’s foreign sales through a gravity model, we test this hypothesis on a large sample of SMEs from four European Union countries. We find that family-managed SMEs have fewer foreign sales than other type of SMEs, but that the difference is partially bridged if family-managed SMEs have adopted a global niche business model.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce the concept of embodied energy injustices in order to encourage integrative, systemic, transboundary assessment of the global implications and responsibility of energy-policy decisions.
Abstract: We introduce the new concept of embodied energy injustices in order to encourage integrative, systemic, transboundary assessment of the global implications and responsibility of energy-policy decisions. Embodied energy injustices reframe considerations of energy justice to explicitly consider hidden and distant injustices (upstream or downstream) arising from the extraction, processing, transportation and disposal of energy resources. We assess the embodied energy injustices connected to the decision to decommission a coal-fired power plant in Salem, Massachusetts, US, and its replacement with a natural-gas-fired power station. Cerrejon open-pit coalmine in La Guajira, Colombia, powered the Salem plant for over a decade. Fracked gas from Pennsylvania now supplies fuel for the new power station. Comparing the extraction of these two very different fuels reveals multiple parallel injustices. But the regulatory environment fails to account for the different constituencies, jurisdictions and effects that fall outside the formal remit of existing impact assessments. We therefore call for mandatory transboundary impact assessments of large-scale energy-related projects, which explicitly integrate previously unrecognized social-environmental harms and injustices. Expanding energy law and policy discussions to incorporate embodied energy injustices can enhance sustainable energy governance and enable corporate accountability for the transboundary harms of fossil fuel extraction and use. Linking chains of energy injustice—by revealing their interconnected positions along fossil-fuel supply chains—may help generate and unite powerful trans-local solidarity movements, which politicize local struggles within wider national, regional and global energy politics.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate how CEO narcissism, in combination with corporate governance practices, impacts organizational risk-taking and how this in turn affects organizations' resilience to environmental conditions.
TL;DR: This paper examined the impact of board gender diversity on financial misconduct and found that firms with gender-diverse boards commit fewer financial reporting mistakes and engage in less fraud, after accounting for the potentially endogenous nature of board demographic characteristics via instrumental variable approach.
Abstract: This study examines the impact of board gender diversity on financial misconduct. The findings suggest firms with gender-diverse boards commit fewer financial reporting mistakes and engage in less fraud. The findings hold after accounting for the potentially endogenous nature of board demographic characteristics via instrumental variable approach. Furthermore, the findings are consistent in pre- and post-regulation (Sarbanes–Oxley) periods and hold for firms with good and bad governance. The findings do not seem driven by differences in effort or quality, in terms of independence and expertise, of female and male directors. The benefit derived from increasing the number of female directors on corporate boards seems to diminish at higher levels of gender diversity, indicating that impact of gender diversity on decreasing the likelihood of financial misconduct may be a result of a change to board group dynamics.
Stockholm Resilience Centre1, North-West University2, Autonomous University of Barcelona3, Royal Institute of Technology4, The New School5, Institute of Ecosystem Studies6, Humboldt University of Berlin7, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ8, University of Łódź9, Ecologic Brands, Inc.10
TL;DR: It is argued that more fully connecting green and blue infrastructure to its urban systems context and highlighting dynamic interactions among the three filters are key to understanding how and why ecosystem services have variable distribution, continuing inequities in who benefits, and the long-term resilience of the flows of benefits.
Abstract: The circumstances under which different ecosystem service benefits can be realized differ. The benefits tend to be coproduced and to be enabled by multiple interacting social, ecological, and technological factors, which is particularly evident in cities. As many cities are undergoing rapid change, these factors need to be better understood and accounted for, especially for those most in need of benefits. We propose a framework of three systemic filters that affect the flow of ecosystem service benefits: the interactions among green, blue, and built infrastructures; the regulatory power and governance of institutions; and people's individual and shared perceptions and values. We argue that more fully connecting green and blue infrastructure to its urban systems context and highlighting dynamic interactions among the three filters are key to understanding how and why ecosystem services have variable distribution, continuing inequities in who benefits, and the long-term resilience of the flows of benefits.