This paper studies the effect of agents’ access to pre-decision information, depending on whether only group performance is rewarded or individual performance is rewarded. Pre-decision information only affects agents’ incentives, which in turn depend on the type of performance evaluation...

This paper develops an empirical approach to explicitly test two multi-agent moral hazard models on executive compensation in S&P 1500 firms, which distinguish between a team perspective and an individual perspective. This approach assesses which model is more robust at rationalizing the...

This paper develops an empirical approach to explicitly test two multi-agent moral hazard models on executive compensation in S&P 1500 firms, which distinguish between a team perspective and an individual perspective. This approach assesses which model is more robust at rationalizing the...

Traditional stock option grant is the most common form of incentive pay in executive compensation. Applying a principal-agent analysis, we find this common practice suboptimal and firms are better off linking incentive pay to average stock prices. Among other benefits, averaging reduces...

We examine the economic consequences of the recent adoption of SFAS 123(R) in the United States. Consistent with the conjectures of prior research, our results show that the removal of favorable accounting treatment for stock options post SFAS 123(R) results in a switch from stock options to...

A long-standing controversy is whether CEO employment contracts insulate inferior managers from discipline leading to shareholder wealth destruction, or whether contracts alleviate managerial risk aversion and encourage value-enhancing decisions. Using a unique dataset on S&P 500 CEO employment...

Agency theory suggests that the interests of opportunistic, self-interested agents will conflict with those of principals. Stewardship theory suggests instead that executives' interests will be aligned with company interests and executives thus be more intrinsically motivated than predicted by...

We explore the relation between task complexity, delegation, and incentive compensation. Conventional agency theory posits that task complexity increases the noise in performance measures and is hence associated with lower incentive compensation. However, Prendergast (2002) argues that task...

The objective of this paper is to test whether broiler processors, after observing their contract growers' abilities in the sequences of repeated short-term contracts, strategically allocate production inputs of varying quality. The strategy can either consist of providing high ability agents...

While numerous studies have examined the impact that powerful CEOs have on their compensation and overall firm decisions, relatively little is known about how powerful CFOs influence their compensation and important firm financial reporting and operational outcomes. This is somewhat surprising...