公司治理評鑑結果與成本不對稱性

Abstract

本篇論文欲探討我國企業的公司治理評鑑結果與成本不對稱性之關聯，依照財團法人證券暨期貨市場發展基金會公布之評鑑結果區分公司治理之優劣程度，根據文獻建立兩種假說：代理假說與永續假說，分析公司治理於成本不對稱性中扮演何種角色。 本研究以2014年至2021年（第一屆至第八屆公司治理評鑑）為樣本區間，參照Anderson, Banker, and Janakiraman (2003)、Dierynck, Landsman, and Remders (2012)、Hall (2016)之研究建立迴歸模型。實證結果表明，整體樣本期間內，公司治理評鑑結果較佳時，具有較低的成本僵固性，與代理假說符合，公司治理能有效抑制經理人的帝國建立動機，因而減輕總成本之成本僵固性。前四屆公司治理評鑑的迴歸結果也符合代理假說，而後四屆公司治理評鑑的迴歸結果卻發現公司治理評鑑結果較佳時，具有較高的成本僵固性，偏向永續假說，公司治理評鑑結果較佳代表愈重視永續發展，因而加劇總成本之成本僵固性，透過分群分析前四屆與後四屆之樣本可得知公司治理評鑑結果與成本不對稱性之關聯會受到公司治理趨勢之影響。 本研究另以自由現金流量之高低衡量帝國建立動機，發現公司治理抑制帝國建立之效果於自由現金流量高群組較為強烈，更能減輕其成本僵固性。而以員工福利費用比例之高低衡量企業社會責任時，則發現公司治理評鑑結果反映公司對於企業社會責任之投入程度，重視永續發展加劇了員工福利費用比例高群組之成本僵固性。

This paper aims to discuss the relationship between Taiwan listed firms’ corporate governance evaluation results and cost asymmetry, using the results published by the Securities and Futures Institute (SFI) to distinguish the quality of corporate governance. According to previous literature, setting two hypotheses (agency hypothesis and sustainable hypothesis) in order to examine the role of corporate governance in cost asymmetry. The sample consists of corporate governance evaluation results from 2014 to 2021, and the regression model is adapted from prior research. The empirical result shows that for the whole sample period, if the company performs well in the corporate governance evaluation, costs will be less sticky, supporting the agency hypothesis. The regression result from the first to the fourth corporate governance evaluation also supports the agency hypothesis, but the regression result from the fifth to the eighth corporate governance evaluation shows that if the company performs well in the evaluation, costs will be stickier. The results of different period provide evidence that the relationship between corporate governance evaluation results and cost asymmetry is affected by the trend of corporate governance. Further analysis includes using free cash flow to measure the empire building incentives, the regression result shows that the alleviate effect of cost stickiness from corporate governance is greater in high free cash flow group. Using employee welfare expense ratio to measure corporate social responsibility (CSR), the regression result shows that corporate governance evaluation reflects the involvement of CSR thus increases the degree of cost stickiness in high employee welfare expense ratio group.