This paper surveys the recent literature on CEO compensation. The rapid rise in CEO pay over the past 30 years has … sparked an intense debate about the nature of the pay-setting process. Many view the high level of CEO compensation as the … result of powerful managers setting their own pay. Others interpret high pay as the result of optimal contracting in a …

In this paper we describe the important features of executive compensation in the US from 1993 to 2006. Some confirm … what has been found for earlier periods and some are novel. Important facts about compensation are that: the compensation … increased; the income accruing to CEOs from the sale of stock has increased; regardless of the measure we adopt, compensation …

the latter half of the 1990s. Far from rejecting the optimal incentive contracting theory of executive compensation, the …

We study the extent to which decisions to expand firm size are associated with increases in subsequent CEO compensation …. Controlling for past stock performance, we find a positive correlation between CEO compensation and the CEO's past decisions to … compensation that is higher by one-third than the compensation of CEOs belonging to the bottom quartile. We also find that stock …

We present a multiperiod agency model of stock based executive compensation in a speculative stock market, where … optimal compensation contracts may emphasize short-term stock performance, at the expense of long run fundamental value, as an … incentive to induce managers to pursue actions which increase the speculative component in the stock price. Our model provides a …

An effective performance-based compensation system must increase the probability of high performance corporate outcomes … performance and current compensation indicates that the pay system is performance-based in practice, if not explicitly. This study … considers whether increasing the sensitivity of current compensation to current performance is associated with higher …

compensation relative to other workers' earnings from 1940 to 1946. The continued decrease in relative executive pay remains …

of the typical American firm. Variable pay is usually touted as a way to provide incentives to managers whose interests … received much attention, but that is consistent with may of the facts, is selection. Managers and industry specialists may have … information about a firm's prospects that is unavailable to outside investors. In order to induce managers to be truthful about …