Chan et al. (2012) find that voluntary adoption of compensation clawback provisions is
followed by fewer financial restatements and fewer auditor reports of material internal
control weaknesses, higher earnings response coefficients, and reduced auditing fees and
lags. They conclude that voluntary adoption of clawback provisions leads to increased
financial integrity. Based on these findings they suggest that U.S. government mandated
clawback provisions will be effective in reducing material financial misstatements.
I offer possible alternative interpretations of CCCY’s results and discuss issues surrounding
government regulation of clawback provisions in particular and corporate behavior
more generally.