---
title: "Principal-agent problem research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “principal-agent problem” appeared in 1,060 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in finance (511), economics (331) and accounting (88)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/principal-agent-problem
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/principal-agent-problem.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “principal-agent problem” appeared in 1,060 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in finance (511), economics (331) and accounting (88). (as of 2026-11-04)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-04T00:03:46+09:00
window: 2026-10-06 to 2026-11-04
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “principal-agent problem”

Research on “principal-agent problem” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “principal-agent problem” appeared in 1,060 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in finance (511), economics (331) and accounting (88).
- 125 of them were published in 2025, against 95 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (19), Xiamen University (16) and Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (16).
- The journals publishing most of them were Finance research letters (50), International Review of Financial Analysis (37) and International Review of Economics & Finance (32).
- The most-cited of them is “Career concerns and multitasking local bureaucrats: Evidence of a target-based performance evaluation system in China” (Journal of Development Economics, 2018), with 681 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 45 | 28 | 31 | 39 | 53 | 49 | 59 | 87 | 72 | 48 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 32 | 31 | 29 | 35 | 31 | 26 | 46 | 44 | 35 | 22 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 5 | 5 | 5 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 12 | 6 | 6 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 6 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 95 | 78 | 80 | 95 | 112 | 104 | 131 | 154 | 125 | 86 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 50 |
| 2 | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 37 |
| 3 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 32 |
| 4 | [Pacific-Basin Finance Journal](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/pacific-basin-finance-journal.md) | 29 |
| 5 | [Research in International Business and Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-in-international-business-and-finance.md) | 28 |
| 6 | [Journal of Banking & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-banking-finance.md) | 18 |
| 7 | [Games and Economic Behavior](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/games-and-economic-behavior.md) | 17 |
| 8 | [Journal of Economic Theory](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-economic-theory.md) | 16 |
| 9 | [Economics Letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economics-letters.md) | 13 |
| 10 | [Economic Analysis and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-analysis-and-policy.md) | 12 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Southwestern University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southwestern-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 19 |
| 2 | [Xiamen University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xiamen-university.md) | 16 |
| 3 | [Zhongnan University of Economics and Law](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhongnan-university-of-economics-and-law.md) | 16 |
| 4 | [Shanghai University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/shanghai-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 13 |
| 5 | [Capital University of Economics and Business](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/capital-university-of-economics-and-business.md) | 11 |
| 6 | [Central University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/central-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 11 |
| 7 | [University of International Business and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-international-business-and-economics.md) | 11 |
| 8 | [Nankai University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/nankai-university.md) | 9 |
| 9 | [Fudan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/fudan-university.md) | 8 |
| 10 | [Guangdong University of Foreign Studies](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/guangdong-university-of-foreign-studies.md) | 8 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 242 |
| 2 | United States | 122 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 54 |
| 4 | Australia | 32 |
| 5 | South Korea | 20 |
| 6 | Italy | 19 |
| 7 | Taiwan | 19 |
| 8 | Canada | 17 |
| 9 | France | 17 |
| 10 | Germany | 14 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [corporate governance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-governance.md) | 134 |
| 2 | [information asymmetry](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/information-asymmetry.md) | 82 |
| 3 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 66 |
| 4 | [financial constraints](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/financial-constraints.md) | 62 |
| 5 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 37 |
| 6 | [state-owned enterprises](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/state-owned-enterprises.md) | 33 |
| 7 | cash holdings | 27 |
| 8 | [emerging markets](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/emerging-markets.md) | 23 |
| 9 | moral hazard | 23 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 681 | 6.5 | [Career concerns and multitasking local bureaucrats: Evidence of a target-based performance evaluation system in China](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.02.001) | [Journal of Development Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-development-economics.md) | 2018-02-13 | Yvonne Jie Chen, Pei Li, Yi Lu |
| 2 | 410 | 3.5 | [Corporate Social Responsibility and Capital Allocation Efficiency](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.01.012) | [Journal of Corporate Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-corporate-finance.md) | 2017-01-01 | Avishek Bhandari, David Javakhadze |
| 3 | 325 | 3.5 | [Does social capital mitigate agency problems? Evidence from Chief Executive Officer (CEO) compensation](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2019.02.009) | [Journal of Financial Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-financial-economics.md) | 2019-02-14 | Chun Keung Hoi, Qiang Wu, Hao Zhang |
| 4 | 270 | 3.8 | [Dividends and economic policy uncertainty: International evidence](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2020.101785) | [Journal of Corporate Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-corporate-finance.md) | 2020-11-20 | Najah Attig, Sadok El Ghoul, Omrane Guedhami et al. |
| 5 | 255 | 3.3 | [Institutional investors' horizons and corporate employment decisions](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2020.101634) | [Journal of Corporate Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-corporate-finance.md) | 2020-05-08 | Mohamed Ghaly, Viet Anh Dang, Konstantinos Stathopoulos |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “principal-agent problem”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/principal-agent-problem

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-principal-agent-problem,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “principal-agent problem”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/principal-agent-problem}},
  urldate = {2026-11-04},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).