Firms' matching contributions to employees' defined contribution pension plans are an important spur to employee retirement savings. Firms frequently match employees' defined contribution pension plan using company stock and prohibit employees from selling; employees sometimes voluntarily invest...

This is an exploratory study on the characteristics and performance of firms that choose to grant executive stock options as a strategic compensation practice. According to the push theory of employee ownership, stock options are granted to push employees to create superior financial...

We examine how tax legislation that restricted firms' deductions of CEO compensation above $1 million, reduced the implicit contracting cost of compensation for firms that were expected to pay below that amount and that were not directly affected by the law change. We find that firms who...

The German system of corporate governance differs considerably from its counterparts in the United States and the United Kingdom. There is anecdotal evidence, however, that suggests market forces are serving to destabilize traditional structures in Germany and are causing some form of...

This study investigates the relation between the use of compensation consultants and CEO pay levels. Using new proxy statement disclosures from 2,116 companies, we examine claims that pay is higher in clients of compensation consultants, and test whether any pay differences in users and...

In 2004 the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Financial Accounting Statement 123R which, among other things, mandates that firms report the estimated quot;fair valuequot; of employee stock option grants and other forms of equity compensation and apply the expense to their reported...

We estimate the effects on firm salary, return on assets, and efficiency of wrongful discharge protections adopted by U.S. state courts during 1980-1990. By examining the data of approximately 17,500 commercial banks, we find evidence that all three wrongful discharge doctrines - the public...

The dual economy development models hold minimum wages (among other institutions) accountable for persistent dualism. We use 12 years of micro data on thousands workers in Costa Rica to test whether legal minimum wages have a differential impact on wages in the formal sector vs. informal sector,...

In this paper, we review the evidence that we have accumulated on the employment effects of minimum wages. We point out specific areas of agreement and disagreement between our research and that of others, and where possible, offer our reconciliation of the conflicting results. Our conclusion is...