경영자능력이 원가비대칭성에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

This study investigates the relationship between managerial ability and the cost behavior of Demerjian et al. (2012) to find out how able managers make cost-related decisions. We also tested the moderating effect of governance on the relationship between managerial ability on cost behavior. We conducted our analysis for the non-financial December year-end businesses listed on the Korea Exchange from 2010 to 2018. Test results are as follows. First, we discovered that the higher the manager's ability, the more sticky the cost: the less cost reduction when sales decreased, compared to the cost increase when sales increased. Second, when considering corporate governance, we found that this effect was evident in companies with major shareholders. We interpret that the relationship between managerial ability and asymmetrical cost behavior occurs mainly in companies with low agency costs, implying that the able managers' cost behavior is primarily due to value maximization motives rather than opportunistic motives. This study's contribution to the literature is that it was the first Korean study to investigate the effect of manager ability on the asymmetric cost behavior and that it found the motivation behind the cost behavior by competent managers. We also contribute to the literature by considering managerial ability and governance together as the fac tors influencing managerial cost decisions.