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Do Equity Markets Care about Income Inequality? Evidence from Pay Ratio Disclosure

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  • YIHUI PAN
  • ELENA S. PIKULINA
  • STEPHAN SIEGEL
  • TRACY YUE WANG

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.

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  • Yihui Pan & Elena S. Pikulina & Stephan Siegel & Tracy Yue Wang, 2022. "Do Equity Markets Care about Income Inequality? Evidence from Pay Ratio Disclosure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(2), pages 1371-1411, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jfinan:v:77:y:2022:i:2:p:1371-1411
    DOI: 10.1111/jofi.13113
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    2. Matteo Crosignani & Hanh Le, 2023. "Stakeholders’ Aversion to Inequality and Bank Lending to Minorities," Staff Reports 1079, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    3. Liu, Jianxiang & Yi, WenYu, 2024. "Does the style drift caused by frequent cross-industry portfolio rebalancing harm fund performance? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    4. Dittmann, Ingolf & Montone, Maurizio & Zhu, Yuhao, 2023. "Wage gap and stock returns: Do investors dislike pay inequality?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    5. Ye, Miaomiao & Li, Mengzhe & Zeng, Qiannan, 2022. "Former CEO director and executive-employee pay gap," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Ye, Ryan & Chen, Yanan & Kelly, Kyle A., 2023. "The effects of firm performance on CEO compensation and CEO pay ratio before and during COVID-19," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(4), pages 453-458.
    7. Edmans, Alex & Gosling, Tom & Jenter, Dirk, 2023. "CEO compensation: Evidence from the field," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(3).
    8. Afzali, Aaron & Oxelheim, Lars & Randøy, Trond & Paulo Vieito, João, 2023. "The Impact of Relative CEO Pay on Employee Productivity," Working Paper Series 1458, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
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    11. D'Mello, Ranjan & Kwon, Sungjoung & Toscano, Francesca, 2024. "Corporate social responsibility and the executive-employee pay disparity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    12. Khurram, Muhammad Usman & Chen, Lifeng & Abedin, Mohammad Zoynul & Adu, Douglas A. & Lucey, Brian, 2024. "ESG disclosure and internal pay gap: Empirical evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 228-244.
    13. Brownen-Trinh, Ruby & Orujov, Ayan, 2023. "Corporate socio-political activism and retail investors: Evidence from the Black Lives Matter campaign," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

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