Standard principal-agent models commonly invoked to explain executive pay practices do not account for the involvement of third-party intermediaries in the CEO labor market. This paper investigates the influence of one such intermediary – talent agents who seek out prospective employers and...

We investigate how board oversight of U.S. banks has improved since the 2008 financial crisis. Several government-mandated committees have highlighted four key deficiencies with bank boards before the crisis: (i) group think among bank board members; (ii) absence of prior banking experience of...

The competitive target pay policy sets a target amount of total compensation within a specified range of the amount paid to executive peers. If such a policy were widely adopted by compensation committees, we would observe a negative cross-sectional association between the stock price...

The competitive target pay policy sets a target dollar number for total CEO compensation within a specified range of the amounts paid to a CEO’s peers chosen from similar sized firms in the same industry. If such a policy were widely adopted by compensation committees, we would observe a...