Equity pay has been the primary component of managerial compensation packages at US public firms since the early 1990s. Using a comprehensive sample of top executives from 1992-2020, we estimate to what extent they trade firm equity held in their portfolios to neutralize increments in ownership...

This study examines whether the CEO uses share repurchases to sell her equity grants at inflated stock prices, a concern regularly voiced in politics and media. We find that the timing of buyback programs and equity compensation, i.e., the granting, vesting, and selling of equity, is largely...

This article presents a systematic review of the theoretical and empirical literature on option grants and managerial risk taking. One of the objectives is the motivation of further research on the topic. Risk-averse managers hold less diversified portfolios and, thus, tend to take less risk...

Purpose: The nature of each component of executive compensation varies, resulting in variances in executive in- centives and investor pricing. To examine whether there is a differential relation between executive compensation components and cost of equity capital, this study decomposes the...

This study examines whether the CEO uses share repurchases to sell her equity grants at inflated stock prices, a concern regularly voiced in politics and media. We find that the timing of buyback programs and equity compensation, i.e., the granting, vesting, and selling of equity, is largely...

We examine the prevalence, determinants, and consequences of cheap stock. “Cheap stock” refers to equity-based compensation valued at less than fair value. Cheap stock grants have drawn regulators’ attention, with the SEC frequently commenting on issues related to cheap stock when...

Research Question/Issue: Does inside debt compensation affect previous thought on compensation effects in IPOs? What explains variation in compensation when a company goes public? What is the composition of CEO compensation in an IPO? What types of compensation may be more optimal for or are...

Compound options are options for which the underlying is another option. In other words, a compound option is an option written on an option. In this paper, we present two new approaches to compound option pricing. The first approach relies on Malliavin calculus methods and the Clark-Ocone...

The implied volatilities provided by OptionMetrics in the IvyDB database suggest substantial deviations from put-call parity that do not really exist. In S&P 500 options, artificial deviations occur because OptionMetrics uses non-synchronous index and option prices and an average implied...

We provide robust evidence that rank-and-file employee (R&F) stock options are negatively associated with employee injury rates. In cross-sectional analysis, we find that the documented effect is amplified among firms with greater scope for employee free-riding and financially constrained firms,...

This study examines whether the CEO uses share repurchases to sell her equity grants at inflated stock prices, a concern regularly voiced in politics and media. We find that the timing of buyback programs and equity compensation, i.e., the granting, vesting, and selling of equity, is largely...

This paper evaluates the underperformance of individual equity options relative to their replicating portfolios. Considering a high-dimensional set of variables, we use a machine learning approach to identify the characteristics of options and their underlying stocks that provide incremental...

We document a political risk premium of about 0.30% per month in the equity option market. High-political risk firms exhibit delta-hedged returns that are significantly lower than those of low-political risk firms. The effect holds both in a cross-sectional and in a time-series context. A...

This study predicts and finds that chief executive officer (CEO) risk-taking incentives induced by stock option compensation increase a bank’s contribution to systemic distress risk and systemic crash risk. We also predict and find that this CEO incentive–systemic risk relation operates...

This paper investigates the performance of option investments across different stocks by computing monthly returns on at-the-money straddles on individual equities. It finds that options with high historical returns continue to significantly outperform options with low historical returns over...

We investigate the equilibrium interest rate charges on non-recourse and recourse loans secured by stock. In such loans, the client retains the option to prepay and recover the collateral stock. We adopt a structural model of the firm where debt levels, with endogenous bankruptcy, affect equity...

While the literature appeals to efficiency arguments from agency theory to explain the relative rise of CEO equity compensation, prior work has given less focus to CEO pay contracts based on equity and cash incentives that directly (analytically) maximize the total return of firm owners. The...

We examine whether pay differentials between the chief executive officer (CEO) and vice presidents (VPs) can be explained by firms’ strategic priorities. We find that firms that pursue prospector-type strategies have a larger CEO−VP difference in equity compensation. We argue that such a pay...

We investigate the equilibrium interest rate charges on non-recourse and recourse loans secured by stock. In such loans the client retains the option to prepay and recover the collateral stock. We adopt a structural model of the firm where debt levels, with endogenous bankruptcy, affect equity...

This paper conducts a first look into the regulated Bitcoin options market in the United States. We find bitcoin options to be ten times more illiquid than stock options, as measured by bid-ask spreads. The illiquidity significantly affects bitcoin options pricing: Given that investors are on...

We show that much of the profitability in equity option return strategies, that try to capture option mis-pricing by taking exposure to underlying volatility, can be explained by an IPCA model. The alpha reduction, relative to competing static factor models, is between 50% and 75% depending on...

The increasing adoption of Digital Assets (DAs), such as Bitcoin (BTC), rises the need for accurate option pricing models. Yet, existing methodologies fail to cope with the volatile nature of the emerging DAs. Many models have been proposed to address the unorthodox market dynamics and frequent...

This paper analyzes the accounting behavior of firms whose single stock futures are listed in the Korea Exchange (KRX) derivatives market. We find that firms have higher financial reporting quality and more disclosures after single stocks are listed in the future market. Our findings provide...

This paper presents a novel and unique measure of cross-sectional uncertainty constructed from stock options on individual firms. Cross-sectional uncertainty varied little between 1980 and 1995, and subsequently had three distinct peaks -- during the tech boom, the financial crisis, and the...

This paper conducts a first look into the regulated Bitcoin options market in the United States. Compared to stock options, bitcoin options tend to be ten times more illiquid as measured by bid-ask spreads. The illiquidity significantly affects bitcoin options pricing: Given that investors are...

This paper examines CEOs’ holding and trading of the unconstrained firm stock they own, i.e., vested and sellable firm shares. I first develop a theoretical model of why CEOs hold sellable shares in their own firm when doing so is riskier than holding a more diversified portfolio. In this...

We examine whether stock option and restricted stock grants motivate higher performance using employee-level data from Google. Employees who received more equity grants than peers hired at the same time and job grade perform slightly better in the future across a variety of measures. To attempt...

This paper examines the cross-section of CDS returns by forming CDS portfolios based on the implied volatility curves of equity options. We document that CDS protection seller positions earn higher average returns for: (i) firms with higher at-the-money implied volatility and (ii) firms with...

Many firms use equity-based profit sharing to boost participation in employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs). Using a large panel data set (N=262,824) of a multinational firm, we compare the reactions of former ESPP participants and non-participants to a profit sharing distribution (PSD). We find...

We examine the role of employee stock option plans (ESOPs) in mitigating agency problems in New Zealand firms. We find that ESOPs have a significant and positive effect on firm performance relative to their non-ESOP counterparts. This relation appears within a year from the first ESOP...

Informed traders may prefer the options market to the stock market for reasons including the leverage effect, transaction costs, restrictions on short sale. Many studies try to predict future returns of stocks using informed traders' behavior in the options market. In this study, we examine...

The cryptocurrency (CC) market is volatile, non-stationary and non-continuous. This poses unique challenges for pricing and hedging CC options. We study the hedge behaviour and effectiveness for a wide range of models. First, we calibrate market data to SVI-implied volatility surfaces, which in...

Over the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the share of executive compensation paid through stock options. In this paper, we examine the extent to which tax policy has influenced the composition of executive compensation, and discuss the implications of rising stock-based pay...

We find the likelihood of turnover in the CEO and CFO positions is significantly higher in the aftermath of option backdating (in comparison to industry-matched and propensity-score-matched control firms). Turnover is particularly high for severe cases of backdating, namely, when a regulatory...

We examine single stock future (SSF) trading and respective underlyings around dividend ex-dates to study a specific form of dividend tax arbitrage, widely known as cum-ex and cum-cum trading, across Europe. Both strategies are designed to profit from illicit refunds of tax withheld from...

In this Closer Look, we examine a new industry that has arisen in recent years to facilitate the financing of stock-option exercises for employees and executives of pre-IPO companies. These capital providers allow individuals to exercise and retain their stock option awards, meaning the employee...

This study examines the role of media coverage on meritorious shareholder litigation. Asserting a causal effect of the media on litigation is normally difficult due to the endogenous nature of media coverage. However, we use the Wall Street Journal’s backdating coverage to overcome these...

We study the information content of foreign exchange (FX) option volume using a unique dataset on over-the-counter FX options with disclosed counterparty identities and contract characteristics. Our study shows that FX option volume can predict future exchange rate returns, especially when the...