Is Corporate Governance Effective in Ukraine?

Abstract

This paper studies whether and how chief executive officer turnover in Ukrainian firms is related to their performance. Based on a novel data set covering Ukrainian joint stock companies from 2002 to 2006, the paper finds a statistically significant negative association between the past performance of firms, measured by return on sales and return on assets, and the likelihood of managerial turnover. Whereas the strength of the turnover-performance relationship does not seem to depend on factors such as managerial ownership and supervisory board size, we find significant entrenchment effects associated with ownership by managers. Overall, our analysis suggests that corporate governance in Ukraine operates with a certain degree of efficiency, despite the well-known lacunas in the country's institutional environment.