Abstract: Taking A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2009 to 2017 as samples, this paper manually collects the information of the residence of independent directors and empirically tests the relationship between the geographic distance of independent directors and the degree of hollowing out. The findings show that the geographic distance of the independent directors and the degree of hollowing out have a “U-shaped” relationship, and this “U-shaped” relationship is more prominent in private enterprises. The media attention and the marketization can weaken the“U-shaped”relationship between the two. The results of further study show that the collusion behavior of short-distance independent directors and the information disadvantage of long-distance independent directors play a part of the intermediary role in this “U-shaped” relationship. The opening of high-speed train can alleviate the information disadvantage of the long-distance independent directors.

Key words: independent director, geographical distance, degree of hollowing-out, nonlinear relationship