Board leadership structure for Chinese public listed companies Mei Yu* and John K Ashton** Abstract This study examines the determinants and effects of board leadership structure for Chinese PLCs from 2003–2010. The results show that the largest shareholding percentage, state ownership, board size, firm’s listing age, and firm size are negatively related to CEO duality. CEO ownership and CEO age are positively related to CEO duality. These results reflect that ownership structures are important determinants on board leadership structure for Chinese PLCs. It is widely accepted that board leadership structure plays an important role in improving the performance of a firm. Despite this consensus, empirical evidence presents major uncertainties as to the influence of board leadership structure on firm performance. This study contributes to this debate by examining the relationship between board leadership structure and firm performance. Propensity-score matching is used to address the endogeneity problem. Robust to different matching estimators, it is reported that CEO duality is not related to companies’ profitability ratios, while companies with a CEO duality leadership structure have a higher expenses ratio compared to matched companies with a separate leadership structure. This indicates that a separate board leadership structure is an effective corporate governance arrangement to reduce agency costs for Chinese PLCs. Key words: Board Leadership Structure, Firm Performance, Agency Costs, Propensity Score Matching, China JEL classification: G30; G32 *Corresponding author: Mei Yu, Birmingham City Business School, Birmingham City University, Birmingham B42 2SU UK. Tel: 44(0)1212024620. Email: [email protected] ** John K Ashton, Bangor Business School, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd. LL57 2DG UK. Tel: 44(0)1248388193. E-mail: [email protected]