This paper considers optimal compensation for a CEO who is entrusted with administering corporate assets honestly. Optimal compensation designs maximize integrity at minimum cost. These designs are very “low powered,” i.e., while specifying a lower bound for performance and increasing pay...

Do executives demand a premium for working in polluted environments? We develop a model of optimal CEO compensation and find empirical support for its prediction that pollution will induce a higher fixed wage, but lower incentive pay. This is the case even if we exclude polluting firms. We...