Speaker: Dr Andrew Urquhart, ICMA Centre, Henley Business School
Time: Wednesday, 20 November 2019, 13:00-15:00
Venue: S314 (Paul Webley Wing, Senate House)

Abstract
The compensation received by UK Vice Chancellors (VCs) has been on an upward trend in recent years and attracted a lot of negative media attention.  In this paper, we examine whether VC compensation is excessive.  Using a panel dataset covering the academic years 2007/2008 to 2016/2017, we develop a model to predict expected VC compensation to determine whether VCs are over- or undercompensated. Our model finds that VCs are not overcompensated regarding their base salary, but some are overcompensated in terms of their bonus and pension contributions.  For robustness purposes, we employ a LASSO model to determine the determinants of VC pay and our previous findings are supported. Finally, we show that the overcompensated VCs do not perform better in future years.

About speaker

Dr Andrew Urquhart is Associate Professor of Finance at the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School where he is Research Division Lead. Andrew’s main research interests are fintech, cryptocurrencies, corporate governance, financial markets and high-frequency trading. He has published over 35 papers in a range of leading international journals and his research has received considerable attention with over 1000 citations. He regularly presents his work at leading international conferences such as the Financial Management Association (US and European), INFINITI, Paris Financial Management, British Accounting and Finance Association, European Financial Management Association, Economic History Society and Forecasting Financial Markets conferences. He has also received over £500,000 in research income and he is also an associate editor at the European Journal of Finance, International Review of Financial Analysis, and Research in International Business and Finance (2*).

The seminars are sponsored by grants from DFID and ESRC [ESRC Ref: ES/N013344/2], ESRC and NSFC [ESRC Ref: ES/P005241/1] and AXA Research Fund