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Related Party Transactions and Principal-Principal Conflicts in Public Companies: Evidence From the Maritime Shipping Industry

This paper explores the business transactions between a company and its own shareholders, or their affiliates, also known as related party transactions, by compiling a unique panel data set of US public maritime shipping companies for 2011 to 2018, a period of ample liquidity due to extensive quantitative easing programs. We provide empirical evidence that profitability, financial leverage, firm size, board size and board independence are important determinants of related party transactions. In addition, we provide empirical support that above-average operating RPTs and above-average financing RPTs are associated with above-average operating expenses and below average interest expenses, respectively. These empirical findings yield important implications for maritime shipping practitioners and regulators.