This paper proposes to exploit a reform in legal rules of corporate governance to identify contractual incentives from … institutional environment, the reform of the German joint-stock companies act in 1884. We analyze a sample of executive pay for 46 … firms for the years 1870 to 1911. In 1884, a law reform substantially enhanced corporate control, strengthened the …

Large-scale increases in discrimination can lead to dismissals of highly qualified managers. We investigate how … expulsions of senior Jewish managers, due to rising discrimination in Nazi Germany, affected large corporations. Firms that lost … Jewish managers experienced persistent reductions in stock prices, dividends, and returns on assets. Aggregate market value …