金融与财务学系列讲座之320期

时间：10:30-12:00, Tuesday, April 22, 2025

地点: Room 602, Starr Building（史带楼602室）

主题: The Safety Shield: How Classified Boards Benefit Rank-and-File Employees

主讲人: Xiaoran Ni

Xiamen University

Abstract: This study examines how classified boards affect workplace safety, an important dimension of employee welfare. Using comprehensive establishment-level injury data from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and a novel classified board database, we document that firms with classified boards experience 12-13% lower workplace injury rates. To establish causality, we employ instrumental variable and difference-in-differences approaches exploiting staggered board declassifications. The safety benefits of classified boards operate through increased safety expenditures, reduced employee workloads, and enhanced external monitoring through analyst coverage. These effects are strongest in financially constrained firms and those with weaker monitoring mechanisms. Our findings support the bonding hypothesis that anti-takeover provisions facilitate long-term value creation by protecting stakeholder relationships and provide novel evidence that classified boards benefit rank-and-file employees, not just executives and major customers. The results reveal an important mechanism through which governance structures impact employee welfare and challenge the conventional view that classified boards primarily serve managerial entrenchment.

Bio: 倪骁然，现任厦门大学经济学院、王亚南经济研究院教授、博士生导师、金融系副主任，入选国家级青年人才、财政部高层次财会人才。在《经济研究》《管理世界》《经济学（季刊）》《金融研究》《中国工业经济》、Journal of Business Ethics、Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization、Journal of Corporate Finance、Journal of Banking and Finance、Journal of Empirical Finance、Journal of Financial Markets等国内外重要学术期刊发表论文60余篇。主持国家自然科学基金面上项目、青年项目。获教育部人文社科优秀成果奖、福建省社会科学优秀成果二等奖、洪银兴经济学奖、亚洲金融学会年会最佳论文奖等多项学术奖励。