Annual Members Meeting 2017

Annual Members Meeting 2017

  • 27 - 28 April 2017
  • Lausanne, Switzerland

Click here to access the 2016 Annual Report

 

The ECGI Annual Members Meeting 2017 took place on 27-28 April 2017 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The event comprised of a dinner, AGM, Lecture and Prize-giving ceremony.

 

2017 Working Paper Prize-giving

The Standard Life Investments Finance Prize was won by Mariassunta Giannetti (Stockholm School of Economics) and Mengxin Zhao (University of Alberta) for:

Board Diversity and Firm Performance Volatility (ECGI Finance Working Paper No. 462/2016) 

The Allen & Overy Law Prize was won by Ronald J. Gilson (Columbia University, Stanford University) for:

From Corporate Law to Corporate Governance (ECGI Law Working Paper No. 324/2016)

Information

Address:
IMD Business School, Lausanne, Switzerland
Contact:
Elaine McPartlan
European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

27 April - Day 1

19:00

Annual Members Dinner - Olympic Museum

28 April - Day 2

08:30
- 10:30

Annual General Meeting - IMD

10:30
- 12:15

Annual Lecture 2017: "Since you're so rich, you must be really smart: Talent and the Finance Wage Premium" Professor Per Strömberg - IMD

Speakers:
Back to full programme

Annual Lecture 2017: "Since you're so rich, you must be really smart: Talent and the Finance Wage Premium" Professor Per Strömberg - IMD

Time:
10:30h
- 12:15h

Relative pay in the financial sector has experienced an extraordinary increase over the last few decades. A proposed explanation for this trend has been that the demand for skilled workers in finance has risen more than in other sectors. We use Swedish administrative data, which include detailed cognitive and non-cognitive test scores as well as performance in high-school and university, to examine the implications of this hypothesis for talent allocation and relative wages in the financial sector. Despite a significant increase in relative pay, we find no evidence that the selection of talent into finance increased or improved, neither on average nor at the top of the talent and wage distributions. A changing composition of talent or their returns cannot account for the surge in the finance wage premium. These findings alleviate concerns about a ‘brain drain’ into finance at the expense of other sectors, but they also suggest that rents in finance are high and largely unexplained. We end with some thoughts on what other explanations seem more versus less likely to explain the financial pay development.

Speakers

Back to full programme

ECGI 2017 Working Paper Prizes (Law & Finance)

Time:
12:15h
- 12:30h

This year, the Finance Series prize of €5,000, which is sponsored by Standard Life Investments, the global fund manager, was awarded to Professor Mariassunta Giannetti (Stockholm School of Economics) and Mengxin Zhao (University of Alberta), for their paper on “Board Diversity and Firm Performance Volatility”.

Dealing with the topical issue of board diversity, this paper contributes to what seems to be an emerging alternative viewpoint, namely that diversity has also the downside of leading to less coherent decision-making if board members do not share a common perspective. The paper’s notable insight is located in theory and in relating diversity to firm risk.

In addition, the Law Series prize, a further €5,000 which is sponsored by Allen & Overy LLP, the international law firm, was awarded to Professor Ronald J. Gilson (Columbia University, Stanford University) for his paper “From Corporate Law to Corporate Governance”.

This paper, which is a contribution to the forthcoming Oxford University Press Handbook of Corporate Law and Governance, edited by Jeffery Gordon and Georg Ringe, highlights the evolution from corporate law to corporate governance which reflects “a move from a simple legal view of the corporation to one that has become increasingly complex and dynamic, responding to the increased complexity and dynamics of the capital, input and product markets that corporations inhabit”. The paper is a masterful review of 50 years of legal and finance scholarship on corporate governance, which at the same time, building on Professor Gilson’s own influential work in the area, provides a complete and thoughtful picture of what corporate governance in its various interdisciplinary dimensions is and why it matters in today’s business world.

Speaking at the ceremony, Professor Marco Becht, ECGI Executive Director said “The Working Paper law and finance series’ are at the core of ECGI activities, reflecting outwardly the outstanding work of our research members around the globe. The series are strengthened by the generous sponsorship of our partners, Allen & Overy and Standard Life Investments, who have had the vision to support this important award for a number of years running”.

Speakers

Mengxin Zhao

Speakers

Presentations

Video: 

Annual Lecture 2017: "Since you're so rich, you must be really smart: Talent and the Finance Wage Premium" Professor Per Strömberg - IMD

Back to all presentations

Annual Lecture 2017: "Since you're so rich, you must be really smart: Talent and the Finance Wage Premium" Professor Per Strömberg - IMD

Time:
10:30h
- 12:15h

Relative pay in the financial sector has experienced an extraordinary increase over the last few decades. A proposed explanation for this trend has been that the demand for skilled workers in finance has risen more than in other sectors. We use Swedish administrative data, which include detailed cognitive and non-cognitive test scores as well as performance in high-school and university, to examine the implications of this hypothesis for talent allocation and relative wages in the financial sector. Despite a significant increase in relative pay, we find no evidence that the selection of talent into finance increased or improved, neither on average nor at the top of the talent and wage distributions. A changing composition of talent or their returns cannot account for the surge in the finance wage premium. These findings alleviate concerns about a ‘brain drain’ into finance at the expense of other sectors, but they also suggest that rents in finance are high and largely unexplained. We end with some thoughts on what other explanations seem more versus less likely to explain the financial pay development.

Speakers

Back to all presentations

ECGI 2017 Working Paper Prizes (Law & Finance)

Time:
12:15h
- 12:30h

This year, the Finance Series prize of €5,000, which is sponsored by Standard Life Investments, the global fund manager, was awarded to Professor Mariassunta Giannetti (Stockholm School of Economics) and Mengxin Zhao (University of Alberta), for their paper on “Board Diversity and Firm Performance Volatility”.

Dealing with the topical issue of board diversity, this paper contributes to what seems to be an emerging alternative viewpoint, namely that diversity has also the downside of leading to less coherent decision-making if board members do not share a common perspective. The paper’s notable insight is located in theory and in relating diversity to firm risk.

In addition, the Law Series prize, a further €5,000 which is sponsored by Allen & Overy LLP, the international law firm, was awarded to Professor Ronald J. Gilson (Columbia University, Stanford University) for his paper “From Corporate Law to Corporate Governance”.

This paper, which is a contribution to the forthcoming Oxford University Press Handbook of Corporate Law and Governance, edited by Jeffery Gordon and Georg Ringe, highlights the evolution from corporate law to corporate governance which reflects “a move from a simple legal view of the corporation to one that has become increasingly complex and dynamic, responding to the increased complexity and dynamics of the capital, input and product markets that corporations inhabit”. The paper is a masterful review of 50 years of legal and finance scholarship on corporate governance, which at the same time, building on Professor Gilson’s own influential work in the area, provides a complete and thoughtful picture of what corporate governance in its various interdisciplinary dimensions is and why it matters in today’s business world.

Speaking at the ceremony, Professor Marco Becht, ECGI Executive Director said “The Working Paper law and finance series’ are at the core of ECGI activities, reflecting outwardly the outstanding work of our research members around the globe. The series are strengthened by the generous sponsorship of our partners, Allen & Overy and Standard Life Investments, who have had the vision to support this important award for a number of years running”.

Speakers

Mengxin Zhao