Do Equity Markets Care about Income Inequality? Evidence from Pay Ratio Disclosure
研究了2018年美国上市公司首次披露CEO与员工薪酬比率后股票市场的反应，发现高薪酬比率公司公告回报率更低，且不平等厌恶型投资者会抛售这些股票。
ABSTRACT We examine equity markets’ reaction to the first‐time disclosure of the CEO‐worker pay ratio by U.S. public companies in 2018. We find that firms disclosing higher pay ratios experience significantly lower abnormal announcement returns. Firms whose shareholders are more inequality‐averse experience a more negative market response to high pay ratios. Furthermore, during 2018 more inequality‐averse investors rebalance their portfolios away from stocks with a high pay ratio relative to other investors. Our results suggest that equity markets are concerned about high within‐firm pay dispersion, and investors’ inequality aversion is a channel through which high pay ratios negatively affect firm value.