JGSOM Brown Bag Session: What determines the return to bribery? Evidence from corruption cases worldwide

The John Gokongwei School of Management invites you to a Brown Bag Session on "What determines the return to bribery? Evidence from corruption cases worldwide"

Our presenter is Prof. Aris Stouraitis, Professor of Finance in the Department of Accountancy, Economics & Finance, Director of the Centre for Corporate Governance & Financial Policy, and Director of the MSc in Finance (Fintech & Financial Analytics) at Hong Kong Baptist University.

This will be held on Wednesday, 18 October 2023 from 12:00 - 1:30PM at SOM 305 and online via Zoom.
Please register here: https://bit.ly/jgsombrownbag18oct2023

About the Speaker:

Professor Aris Stouraitis is Professor of Finance in the Department of Accountancy, Economics & Finance, Director of the Centre for Corporate Governance & Financial Policy, and Director of the MSc in Finance (Fintech &; Financial Analytics) at Hong Kong Baptist University. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in economics, accounting and finance from the American College of Greece, MSc in Management from INSEAD (France), and PhD in Finance from Imperial College London (United Kingdom). 

His academic research interests are in corporate finance, with emphasis on corporate restructuring, corporate governance, and corruption. His research has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Review of Finance, Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Journal of Corporate Finance and other international academic journals. He has made presentations at conferences organized by the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Harvard Business School, the European Finance Association, the Asian Finance Association, and in more than 30 other international academic conferences worldwide. His research or commentary has been quoted in media outlets worldwide, including Bloomberg, The Economist, Channel News Asia, The Straits Times and The Business Times (Singapore), Hong Kong Economic Journal, Handelsblatt (Germany) and Superinteressante (Brazil).

He is a member of the Governing Council of the Institute of Financial Technologists of Asia (IFTA).

Brief Description of the Topic:

We analyze a hand-collected sample of bribery cases from around the world to describe how the payment of bribes affects shareholder value. The net present value of a bribe conditional on getting caught is close to zero for the median firm in our sample. However, controlling for industry, country, and firm characteristics, a $1 increase in the size of the bribe is associated with an ex-ante $6–$9 increase in the value of the firm, suggesting a correlation between the size of bribes and the size of available benefits. Proxies for information disclosure appear significant in explaining these benefits with more disclosure associated with lower benefits. However, this result is driven by democratic countries where bribe-paying firms receive smaller benefits relative to the bribes they pay. Information disclosure is not significant in autocratic countries.