“Say on Pay” Recognized as Best Finance Paper of 2011

A paper written by Drexel LeBow corporate governance researchers has won the William F. Sharpe Award for the best paper published during 2011 in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. The paper, “Shareholders’ Say on Pay: Does it Create Value?” was written by Ralph Walkling, Ph.D., Stratakis Chair in Corporate Governance and Accountability, and Jie Cai, associate professor of finance.

In their paper, the researchers’ findings suggest that say-on-pay creates value for companies with excessive CEO pay, poor governance, or poor performance, but can destroy value for others.

Walkling, executive director of the College’ Center for Corporate Governance, says: “To win an award named after Bill Sharpe is indeed an honor.” The award’s namesake, William F. Sharpe, is one of the pioneers of finance who, Walkling says, “literally revolutionized the field.”

“Moreover, to be selected by our peers across the world for the best paper in one of our top journals is very meaningful.”

Walkling and Cai beat out 63 other papers published in this journal in 2011. Cai adds that “given the journal’s 90 percent-plus rejection rate, every paper published in the Journal is a very good paper, so the competition is stiff.”