Using a large sample of U.S. firms, we provide evidence on the interplay between CEO overconfidence and CFO overconfidence on cost behavior in the setting of cost stickiness. We predict that overconfident CEOs or CFOs overestimate future demand, which makes them more likely to keep excess...

Recent regulation and legislation, along with the growing influence of compensation consultants and proxy advisors, have led to an increase in performance-contingent awards. A majority of these awards contain performance conditions tied explicitly to accounting measures. Both the structure of...

Using data that includes specific contractual details of Relative Performance Evaluation (RPE) contracts granted to executives for 1,833 firms for the period 1998 to 2012, we develop new methods to characterize RPE awards and measure their value and incentive properties. The frequency in the use...

Baker (2002) has demonstrated theoretically that the quality of performance measures used in compensation contracts hinges on two characteristics: noise and distortion. These criteria, though, will only be useful in practice as long as the noise and distortion of a performance measure can be...

We examine the sorting role of broad-based equity pay using detailed employee-level data. We propose trust in management as an important and beneficial characteristic over which equity pay sorts employees, as such pay typically leaves employees with concentrated positions in employer stock and...

I model the joint effects of debt, macroeconomic conditions, and cash flow cyclicality on risk-shifting behavior and managerial pay-for-performance sensitivity. I show that risk-shifting incentives rise during recessions and that the shareholders can eliminate such adverse incentives by reducing...

We examine whether the stronger information content of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) insider trading relative to that of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) results from a different willingness to exploit the information asymmetry that exists between executives and outside shareholders (scrutiny...