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We examine the effect of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance (D&O insurance) on the behavior of independent directors and the effectiveness of their governance role. Using a unique data set, we find a negative relation between D&O insurance and personal board meeting attendance by independent directors and a positive relation between D&O insurance and meeting attendance by authorized representatives. Content analysis of independent director opinion reports indicates that D&O insurance encourages independent directors to behave less responsibly. Insured independent directors are also more likely to be busy. Collectively, D&O insurance reduces the effectiveness of independent directors in corporate governance.

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Purpose Extensively public concern on “Huge Executive Compensation” makes it urgent to investigate the reasonability of high executive compensation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of compensation contracting based on the specific responsibility of executives. More specifically, this paper is to examine whether high compensation is helpful to mitigate agency problems. Design/methodology/approach Considering that board secretaries of listed companies are responsible for information disclosure in China, this paper examines the effect of board secretaries’ excess compensation on firms’ disclosure quality using listed company data from 2007 to 2015. The first measure of disclosure quality is based on the disclosure violation behavior of firms, and the second is KV value that represents the extent to which the investors relay on the stock trading volume. To provide additional confidence that the findings are robust, this paper further conducts two indirect tests based on rumors and cost of equity capital. Findings The results show that board secretaries’ excess compensation is negatively associated with the probability of information disclosure violation and also negatively associated with firms’ KV value, suggesting firms that pay high compensation to their information providers are more likely to provide high-quality disclosures. Besides, this paper further finds that board secretaries’ excess compensation is negatively related to the incidence of rumors, the number of rumors incurred or the cost of equity capital. Research limitations/implications Overall, the findings provide support to the efficient contracting of executive compensation, which implies that highly paid board secretaries would be better information providers than those poorly paid. Practical implications This paper provides empirical evidence that firms’ disclosure quality can be improved by modifying the compensation contract of information providers. This may indicate a new way to improve the quality of disclosures, so as to mitigate the agency problem. Social implications In spite of the public criticism on executive excess compensation, the high compensation is not always a signal of manipulation, collusion and self-interest. It also can be a signal of individual talents and great efforts. Board secretaries are worth to be highly paid if they can improve firms’ disclosures, thereby reducing the incidence of rumors and reducing the cost of equity capital. Originality/value This paper is the first research to examine the effectiveness of compensation contracting based on information providers’ disclosure responsibility in the Chinese context. It documents a positive relation between board secretaries’ excess compensation and corporate disclosure quality.

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In this paper, an analytical solution is developed for the problem of an infinite 1D hexagonal piezoelectric quasi-crystal medium weakened by an elliptical crack and subjected to mixed loads on the crack surfaces. The mixed loads comprise the phonon pressure, phason pressure, electric displacement, and temperature increment, and the crack surfaces can be electrically permeable or impermeable. Based on a general solution, combined with the generalized potential theory, the steady-state 3D thermo-electro-elastic field variables in the quasi-crystal are obtained in terms of elliptic integral functions and elementary functions. Several important physical quantities on the cracked plane, such as the generalized crack surface displacements, normal stresses, and stress intensity factors, are derived in closed forms. An illustrative numerical calculation verifies the presented analytical solution and shows the distribution of the 3D thermo-electro-elastic field. It is indicated that the influence of the phason field on the result is pronounced, especially for the electric field variables, and the electric permeability of crack surfaces has a significant effect on the electric displacement intensity factor at the crack tip.