Volume 64, Number 2

(March 2011)

Symposium on Executive Compensation Keynote Address

Mar. 30, 2011—

Paying For Advice: The Role of the Remuneration Consultant in U.K. Listed Companies

Mar. 30, 2011—Compensation consultants are an integral part of the process of determining executive pay in large listed companies. This study reports interview-based research with protagonists in setting executive compensation in twelve FTSE 350 companies and addresses why the consultants are used, what they do, and how they are perceived. Consultants have several important roles. Firstly, they...

Executive Compensation Consultants and CEO Pay

Mar. 30, 2011—This Article surveys recent empirical studies on the relation between compensation consultants and CEO pay. The economic rationale for using executive compensation consultants is that they supply valuable data, information, and professional expertise to client firms. However, critics argue that the consultant’s independence might be compromised because of conflicts of interest arising from the cross...

Economics, Politics, and the International Principles for Sound Compensation Practices: An Analysis of Executive Pay at European Banks

Mar. 30, 2011—In this Article, we submit that the compensation structures at banks before the financial crisis were not necessarily flawed and that recent reforms in this area largely reflect already existing best practices. In Part I we review recent empirical studies on corporate governance and executive pay at banks and suggest that there is no strong...

Insider Trading and CEO Pay

Mar. 30, 2011—This Article presents evidence showing that boards of directors “bargain” with executives about the profits they expect to make from trades in firm stock. The evidence suggests that executives whose trading freedom increased using Rule 10b5-1 trading plans experienced reductions in other forms of pay to offset the potential gains from trading. There are two...

Comparing CEO Employment Contract Provisions: Differences Between Australia and the United States

Mar. 30, 2011—This study compares CEO employment contracts across two common law countries: the United States and Australia. Although the regulatory regimes of these jurisdictions enjoy many comparable features, there are also some important institutional differences in terms of capital market, tax, and regulatory structures, which are discussed here. Debate has raged in the United States on...

Evolving Executive Equity Compensation and the Limits of Optimal Contracting

Mar. 30, 2011—Executive equity compensation in the United States is evolving. At the turn of the millennium, stock options dominated the equity pay landscape, accounting for over half of the aggregate ex ante value of senior executive pay at large public companies, while restricted stock and similar compensation accounted for only about ten percent. Beginning in 2006,...